Definition of "occultation" []

• The act of occulting or the state of being occulted. (noun)
• Astronomy The passage of a celestial body across a line between an observer and another celestial object, as when the moon moves between Earth and the sun in a solar eclipse. (noun)
• Astronomy The progressive blocking of light, radio waves, or other radiation from a celestial source during such a passage. (noun)
• Astronomy An observational technique for determining the position or radiant structure of a celestial source so occulted: a lunar occultation of a quasar. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Astronomers refer to this phenomenon as an "occultation," taken from the Latin word occultÄre, which means "to conceal.""
• "Essentially, this so-called occultation passed the shadow of Eris over the Earth."
• "This bending will cause the apparent occultation, that is, going behind the planet, to occur later than otherwise expected, and to exit from occultation prior to when otherwise expected."