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Moon photobombs Saturn: Watch it here

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Saturn got photobombed by the moon Monday morning, and you can watch it for yourself, in the video below.

Around 4 a.m. Pacific time, the moon appeared to glide in front of the ringed planet, briefly blocking out its reflected light. When it emerged once again from the opposite side of the moon, it somehow felt like a triumph.

The celestial photobomb was not visible from North America, but the astronomy website Slooh.com was able to capture the event with a network of telescopes in Australia, where it was Monday evening local time.

In video provided by Slooh, Saturn's iconic rings are clearly visible as it appears to be swallowed up by the moon's shadow. 

The technical term for this event is an "occultation," but you can also think of it as an eclipse, with the moon in the foreground blocking out the light of the giant planet, just like it does the sun's light during a solar eclipse.

The occultation would have been easy to see with the naked eye from the Eastern hemisphere, but without the aid of a telescope, it would simply look like the moon was passing in front of a bright star.

With a telescope that can resolve those glorious rings, however, the entire event becomes more spectacular.

In the Slooh video you will see two different views of the start of the occultation and three different views of its end.

"What a three-dimensional experience we are having with the moon being only a quarter million miles away and Saturn being ... the better part of a billion miles away," says astronomer Bob Berman during the Slooh broadcast."And it's all lined up in 3-D."

Do you love to learn? Follow me @DeborahNetburn and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.


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