The young crescent after sunset, made visible after strong contrast stretching of two images from the DSLR taken a few seconds apart. Using a lens with a longer focal length would have made the crescent more easily visible.
During a visit to Saudi-Arabia, to complete a long-lasting telescope project with a friend, we tried to observe the young crescent moon in the evening of 9. September from a low altitude site near Medina, using naked eye and hand-held binoculars.
We could not see the crescent visually, despite being almost sure of the location in the sky. The lack of a tripod for the binoculars limited their use, though.
I shot many pairs of images with my Canon DSLR and a 200mm lens during the observation, hoping to be able to find the crescent in these images later. I was indeed able to extract the crescent from these images later, but only after strong processing.
The young crescent after sunset, made visible after strong contrast stretching of two images from the DSLR taken a few seconds apart. Using a lens with a longer focal length would have made the crescent more easily visible.
We were not to concerned about not being able to see the crescent visually, as we also had some more suitable instrument with us, which gave a very clear real-time view on the computer screen.
After returning to Jeddah, the crescent was easy to see one day later.
Crescent and Venus from the hotel in Jeddah, looking west over the red sea.
The fountain in Jeddah, switched on later in the night: "Because we can."