Sometimes the Moon is a busy direction. Last week, for example,
our very Moon passed in front of the planet Jupiter. While
capturing this unusual spectacle from New South Wales, a quick-
thinking astrophotographer realized that a nearby plane might
itself pass in front of the Moon, and so quickly reset his
camera to take a continuous series of short duration shots. As
hoped, for a brief instant, that airplane, the Moon, and Jupiter
were all visible in a single exposure, which is But the project
was not complete -- a longer exposure was then taken to bring up
three of the Jupiter's own moons: Io, Calisto, and Europa (from
left to right). Unfortunately, this triple spectacle soon
disappeared. Less than a second later, the plane flew away from
the Moon. A few seconds after that, the Moon moved to cover all
of Jupiter. A few minutes after that, Jupiter reappeared on the
other side of the Moon, and even a few minutes after that the
Moon moved completely away from Jupiter. Although hard to catch,
planes cross in fro