The Young Moon Observed from Sicily

December 19, 2017

Crescent moon 19112017

Photographer: Giuseppe Pappa
Summary Authors: Giuseppe Pappa; Jim Foster

Featured above is but a sliver of the Moon as observed through a gap in the clouds over Mascalucia, Sicily on the evening of November 19, 2017. The Moon was about 1 1/2 days old here and just 1.4 percent of its surface was illuminated. Its Cheshire grin appears somewhat crooked because of atmospheric distortion and perhaps, at the edge of the smile, because of irregularities in the lunar topography. Note that the record for seeing the young Moon, with the unaided eye, is approximately 15 1/2 hours after new. Look low in the west-southwest this evening, about 40 minutes after sunset, to see this month's very young Moon.

Photo Details: Canon 760d camera; 300mm lens.