The moon passes directly in front of Venus during a rare daylight occultation on June 17, 2026, creating one of the month’s most unusual and technically challenging skywatching events.
For most of North America, the moon will slide over Venus in the mid-afternoon. The chances of witnessing this rare event are good, provided the skies are clear and deep blue.
There is one important catch: the event takes place in broad daylight. Between roughly 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. EDT, the sun will still be high in the sky, while the moon and Venus will sit about 38 degrees away from it. Anyone using binoculars or a telescope must be incredibly careful not to accidentally sweep across the sun, which can cause instant and permanent eye damage.
Never sweep the daytime sky with binoculars or a telescope without knowing exactly where the sun is. To view the occultation safely, place your telescope in the physical shadow of a building so the sun is completely blocked by the roofline.
Read more: How to observe the sun safely (and what to look for)
The moon will be a very thin waxing crescent, about 2 to 3 days old and roughly 11% to 14% illuminated. Venus, meanwhile, will be blazing at magnitude -4.0.
While Venus is technically bright enough to be seen with the naked eye during the day if you have 20/20 vision and know exactly where to look, daylight washes out much of the contrast. Binoculars or a telescope are exactly what you want here. The crescent moon acts as a perfect celestial guidepost to help locate the planet, and the optics will provide a spectacular view of Venus slipping behind the unilluminated edge of the lunar disk.
Through a telescope, watching the jagged, unlit edge of the lunar crescent slowly consume the brilliant white disk of Venus against a blue daytime sky is an unforgettable sight.
If you would rather not explore the sky during the daytime, the evening sky has another treat in store. The waxing crescent moon will be sitting near the Beehive Cluster (M44) in the constellation Cancer.
Once the sky is fully dark — about 45 to 60 minutes after sunset — look toward the moon. Just a few degrees away, you’ll find a faint, fuzzy patch of light. That’s the Beehive Cluster. Through binoculars, it completely transforms into a sparkling scattering of dozens of faint blue-white stars. Spanning about the width of three full moons, the cluster and crescent moon will fit comfortably into the same binocular field of view, creating a spectacular sight.
The bright sunlit sliver of the moon will be dazzling, but the rest of the lunar globe will be visibly glowing from sunlight reflected off Earth’s oceans and clouds back onto the moon. Known as earthshine, the effect makes the moon appear strikingly three-dimensional through binoculars.
The moon and Beehive Cluster also provide an excellent target for a quick, wide-field astrophotography project. Mount a DSLR camera with a 135 mm lens on a tripod and expose long enough to capture the glittering swarm of Beehive stars while keeping the exposure short enough to preserve the earthshine on the dark side of the lunar crescent.
