Astrophoto: Crescent Moon Crossing

By Nancy Atkinson - September 21, 2012 02:28 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Astrophotographer Ken Lord caught an airplane crossing in front of a setting crescent Moon in British Columbia, Canada. Credit: Ken Lord

The things you can see out your door! On a

previous image in this sequence

, Ken Lord from British Columbia, Canada said he stuck his head out the door and happened to see a great view of the setting crescent Moon, so he ran and got his camera, took a few shots, and then managed to capture an airplane crossing directly in front of the beautiful crescent. Ken notes the mountains on the horizon are on Vancouver Island.

He used a Canon T1i, 170mm, 0.8 second exposure, ISO3200, F5.6. See more of Ken's images at

his Flickr page.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com