One evening, when I was 14, I read that the moon was going to occult Venus. I had a telescope Through The Looking Glass, where I would peer into the heavens looking for the ultimate vista. Unfortunately it was to be at 4am in the middle of the winter(on Long Island).
I left my telescope outside the night before so the glass would have plenty of time to equalize in temperature to the outside air. If you didn't pay attention to things like this, your results would be disappointing.
Somehow I managed to get up and get myself into the backyard about 30 minutes prior to the occultation. It was a very cool site. The moon, about half full, and Venus also about half full were slowly coming together.
But what was so interesting about this was that they were in the same half full configuration. And Venus is really bright, much brighter (although smaller) than the moon. As I watched them come together, Venus looked liked a domed city landing on the moon!
The picture at top right is photoshop'd, but it looked just like that.
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