While clouds covered most of the United States, a few lucky observers did witness the occultation of Jupiter by the Moon on the morning of December 7th. Don Parker of Coral Gables, Florida, captured it with his 10-inch Cassegrain telescope and a webcam. "The skies cleared up here shortly before the event, so I was lucky," Parker says. "The event was so fast-moving that any exposure lengths longer than two seconds blurred the Moon!" The next Jupiter occultation is visible from Africa and southwestern Australia on January 4, 2005. Click on the image for a 364 kilobyte animated gif showing the beginning of the Jupiter occultation.