Definition of "occulter" [occulter]

• Any object, natural or man-made, that blocks the light of an object from an observer, typically used in reference to astronomical events. (noun)

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• "The first 'occulter' spacecraft casts a perfectly controlled shadow onto the face of the second, carrying the mission instruments."
• "In its place, NASA is considering a plan to design and launch an occulter and connect it with the James Webb Space Telescope, the highly sophisticated and very expensive successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and scheduled to launch in 2014."
• "But a year later, when I met Soummer in his office in Baltimore, the wedding of the Webb to an occulter looked far more promising than anyone could have imagined."