The Moon is now situated between magnitude 1.1 Saturn and magnitude –4.5 Venus in the east an hour before dawn.
If you were outside yesterday morning, you’ll note that the Moon is now a thinner crescent as it wanes toward New. Only its western limb is directly sunlit. But look for earthshine lighting up its shadowed face, as sunlight bounces off Earth to illuminate regions of the Moon already experiencing night.
Although Venus is unmissable even with the naked eye, use a telescope to observe it in more detail. The planet’s disk also appears as a crescent, now some 45 percent lit. That disk spans an impressive 26” in the sky, thanks to Venus’ proximity to Earth: It is currently just less than 5.9 million miles (9.4 billion km) from our planet, as our two worlds lie close to each other in their orbits around the Sun at this time.
The Moon will pass 4° north of Venus at 8 P.M. EDT tonight.
Sunrise: 5:38 A.M.
Sunset: 8:16 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:12 A.M.
Moonset: 4:23 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (17%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.
