Around the world on Sept. 11th, sky watchers marveled as Venus and the Moon converged for a beautiful close encounter. In South Africa, it was a full-fledged occultation. "The Moon passed directly in front of Venus, completely covering the planet," reports Kerneels Mulder. "I was lucky enough to capture a series of images as Venus re-appeared from behind the Moon in broad daylight."

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© Kerneels Mulder

Take a close look at Venus in the full-sized composite. Like the Moon, Venus has phases, and on Sept. 11th it was only 35% illuminated. With the Moon itself at 19%, this was a close encounter of crescents.

Other, less-close encounters were equally beautiful. Browse the links for global examples: from Aymen Ibrahem of Giza, Egypt; from M. RaลŸid TuฤŸral of Mogan Lake, Ankara-Turkiye; from Stefano De Rosa of Viverone Lake, Italy; from Gustavo Rojas of Passa Quatro, Brazil; from Moulley Charaf Chabou of Algiers, Algeria