Moon and Earthshine
|Field:||1.2o x 1.0o
||Detector:||Kodak Royal Gold 400
© Copyright by the Observers
In an evening about two days after New Moon you can observe the young waxing
Moon deep above the western horizon. The same holds for the old waning moon
two days before New Moon. In the morning it will rise above the eastern
horizon. Due to the small angular distance to the sun the lunar sphere is illuminated
almost from behind and the moon appears as a small sickle. However, under a clear
sky you also can see the rest of the lunar surface in a faint grey, the so called
Earthshine. It's sunlight reflected back from earth to the moon and vice versa.
An astronaut on the moon would see almost a "full earth" at this time.
The age of the moon, i.e. the time span after new moon, was 38.5 hours at the
time of the above observation. Due to overexposure the sickle appears larger
on the image than it was to the naked eye. The visible stars belong to the
open star cluster of the
Hyades in the
constellation of the bull.