Awesome Moon and Venus View This Morning

By Nancy Atkinson - April 22, 2009 at 7:48 AM UTC | Observing
moon-and-venus-by-ted-judah.jpg

[/caption] Did you happen to catch the view of the crescent Moon and crescent Venus this morning? Ted Judah from Petaluma, California did, and what an incredible shot this is! Ted used a Canon 30d attached to an Orion 100mm aperture refractor, making it essentially a 900mm f/9 lens. Ted said this is about a 1 second exposure at 200 ISO speed. Click on the image (and then again) to see a larger version of this great image.

The duo should also be visible during the day today -- just look around for the crescent Moon, and scan the sky around it for Venus. Venus is usually visible in broad daylight, but the trick is knowing where to look for it. Today, just look for the moon!

Thanks Ted, for sharing your photo. If anyone else was able to nab a photo of the Moon and Venus and would like to share it, either post a link in the comments below, or insert it the comments, or send it to me.

Update:

Here's another image sent in by Bob Bowhay, who took the picture from west central Alberta, Canada at 5:53 AM. "Sorry about the electric power lines," Bob said. That's just fine, Bob -- this is a great picture! Notice how a crater is visible right near the terminator.

[caption id="attachment_29894" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The Moon and Venus (and power lines). Credit: Bob Bowhay"]

[/caption]

Nancy Atkinson

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