Young lunar crescent on 21. August 2009

The young lunar crescent could be captured with the established camera technique around 06:15 UT, about 45 minutes after it had risen above the eastern horizon.
The moon was at an altitude of 5.5° and at 13° elongation from the sun.

There was a lot of haze in the sky and clouds were approaching from the west.
The sun had risen around 04:00 UT, so this was a DAYTIME observation, but the moon sets AFTER the sun this evening, though this will be very difficult to observe.

We used a simple 135mm lens, a red filter and a black/white CCD camera with special software, to enjoy a contrast-enhanced live-image of the clouds moving in front of the crescent.


The young crescent, around 07:00 UT.


A short video of the clouds moving in front on the lunar crescent. This spans around 45s of real-time.


The sky was quite hazy and the moon was located below this first bank of clouds, UNDER the sun. Not visible in this image.