Less Than 25 Hours

The Moon was New at 19:54 PDT on Sunday. I wasn’t going to go out looking for the barely one-day old Moon tonight, because I ***NEVER*** see the crescent Moon before at least a day and a half to two days after New.

Surprise! At 20:47 tonight, less than 25 hours after New Moon, there it was, a fingernail of light, just barely above the horizon and the neighbor’s roof.

I don’t know that I’ve ever gone back inside, grabbed the camera and tripod, and got back outside and ready to shoot so fast.

Of course, Venus and Jupiter are still up there, separating now that they’re past last week’s conjunction, as Jupiter dives toward it’s passage behind the Sun. (If Jupiter ever goes between us and the Sun, we’re in deep shit.)

And if you click on this picture and blow it up nice and big on your screen and look just a bit above the peak of the roof and just a smidgen to the right, about halfway between Jupiter and the Moon, there’s Mercury.

Three planets, the Moon, and a great sunset! What more could you ask for?

Go look tomorrow night just after sunset – the Moon will be a little more illuminated and up there about halfway between Mercury and Jupiter. IT SHOULD LOOK SPECTACULAR!!!