Monday, June 06, 2005

Once In A Very New Moon

Once In A Very New Moon



A cross-culture lesson in astronomy:

Few people ever see a crescent less than 30 hours old (less than 30 hours from the moment of new Moon) unless they plan for it. But much younger crescents can be sighted. Hunting them has long been an amateur-astronomy pursuit in the Western world, and it gets more attention in Islamic societies, where an actual sighting of the hilal (new crescent) determines the starting date of each month.


Tuesday evening, June 7th, brings a chance to spot an unusually thin, young crescent Moon shortly after sunset. The crescent will be only 26 or 27 hours old as seen from the eastern U.S.

UPDATE 6/7: Low clouds in the west; missed it.

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