Explanation:
At first, he couldn't see it, but searching with binoculars
along a cloudy western horizon near sunset,
photographer
Laurent Laveder finally spotted a delicate lunar crescent.
Captured in this
dramatic picture
on April 6th from Bretagne, France,
the Moon was only 15 hours and 38 minutes old.
Its slight, irregular, sunlit arc opens upward
just above the dark cloud bank near picture center.
Of course, a
crescent Moon in the
early evening sky is a
lovely sight often
enjoyed by many.
But finding the Moon when its slim crescent is still
less than about 24 hours past the New Moon phase requires
careful timing and planning,
a challenging project even for experienced
observers.
In this sighting, only about 0.8 percent of the Moon's
disk appears illuminated.
Laveder notes that this is the
youngest Moon he has spotted in
twenty years of skygazing and also offers this animation
(Flash
or gif)
based on his images of the tantalizing celestial
scene.
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