View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | Do you see the thin sliver of a crescent moon, above the clouds, in the center of this photo? New moon was October 16. On that day, the moon was most nearly between the Earth and sun for this monthly orbit. Radu Anghel captured the thread-like young crescent moon from Bacau, Romania, on October 17. Radu wrote: “A very young moon, only 20 hours old. Easy and wonderful to spot even with binoculars, 20 minutes after the sunset.” Thank you, Radu.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | From the Southern Hemisphere at this time of year, a young moon is easier to see. That’s because it’s springtime in that hemisphere, and the ecliptic – which marks the approximate path of the sun, moon and planets across our sky – stands nearly perpendicular in spring with respect to the western horizon after sunset. Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, made this composite of several photos of the very young moon on October 17, 2020. See the earthshine in the upper right image? Thank you, Peter!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mohamed Mohamed caught the young moon shining in the evening sky from Tripoli, Libya, on October 18. Thank you, Mohamed.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Pradya Gharpure captured the young moon from Nagpur, India, on October 18. Pradnya wrote: “The beautiful young crescent just before it set this evening!! It was a mesmerizing sight to see the earthshine too!!” Thank you, Pradnya.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Salil Kawli caught the young moon in purple twilight from Mumbai, India, on October 18. Salil wrote: “Crescent moon. Illuminated 4%.” Thanks, Salil!
Claudia Crowley proofs and edits EarthSky website material. She says working for EarthSky is the most exciting job she's had except one other - which was editing space shuttle documentation at NASA JSC. After writing and editing manuals for Dell and other major companies, she moved to the technical support side during the wild early days of the Internet, and served as general manager at a small wireless ISP. Claudia is a space enthusiast and fan of science.
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