One of the spectacles enjoyed by amateur astronomers is the sight of a bright star disappearing behind the limb of the Moon.

Scientists call such an event an occultation and accurate timing of when they occur allows us to define the Moon’s position in space with greater precision.

The Cassini spaceprobe has made its own observations of another unique type of occultation – the passage of a bright star behind the rings of the planet Saturn.

The star was Aldebaran, one of the brightest stars in the sky, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus. Cassini took a series of images of Aldebaran on September 9 and watched its brightness fluctuate as it drifted behind the myriad of rings made up of tiny particles.

The picture here shows the star as it shone close to a 325km (200 miles) wide gap in the rings known as Encke’s Division. Cassini took the image from a distance of around 359,000km (233,000 miles).

On Monday, October 9, Cassini made its latest flyby of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The craft used its radar to search for more lakes following the discovery of the first in July.