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Credit & Copyright: Marina Prol
Explanation:
A young crescent moon can be hard to see.
That's because
when the Moon shows
it's crescent phase (young or old)
it can never be far from the Sun in
planet Earth's sky.
And even though the sky is still bright,
a slender sunlit lunar crescent is cleary visible in this
early evening skyscape.
The telephoto snapshot was captured on August 24, with the Moon very near
the western horizon at sunset.
Seen in a narrow crescent phase about 1.5 days old,
the visible sunlit portion is a mere two percent of the surface of
the Moon's familiar nearside.
At the
Canary Islands Space Centre,
a steerable radio dish for
communication with spacecraft
is titled in the direction of the two percent Moon.
The sunset sky's pastel pinkish coloring is partly due to
fine sand and dust from the
Sahara Desert blown by
the prevailing winds.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day