Young Moon

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Apr 04

2011

by GAMBlog

Timetable in April
New Moon 3rd 14:32 UT (Sunday)
First quarter 11th 12:05 UT (Saturday)
Full Moon 18th 2:44 (Friday)
Last quarter 25th 2:47 UT (Friday)

April 4th and 5th

Baby moon…not small, just very young

During the two weeks between New and Full Moon, our cosmic neighbor is always visible in the early night sky. But, just after New Moon, our natural satellite is unfortunately still much to near the Sun in the sky to be really observable. The first chance to glimpse a very young moon this month will be on April 4th right after sunset (around 19:00 or 7 p.m local time). The Moons smallest crescent might or even should be visible from Western Europe and Western Africa. The American continent is next in line to spot a young moon with a few more hours of age than as seen from Europe and Africa.
A binocular could help to find the Moon, but to really count as a sighting, you will need to spot the Moon also with unaided eyes. A thin cloud bank right above the horizon filtering the sunlight might allow for a glimpse of the young Moon even in very late daylight, pushing the chance to spot a even younger crescent a bit more to the East. For most countries south of the equator this sighting will not be possible this month.

Give it a try and feel yourself following the footsteps of ancient Babylonian astronomers and avid contemporary observers. Babylonians needed to spot the young moon to ensure their calendar was counting right. Nowadays it is a kind of unofficial chase to break the record for sighting the youngest moon possible. Search for the ever so tiny crescent just above the Sun or where the Sun just had set earlier. As a crude measure of how far the moon should be from the sun, stretch out one arm, align the lowest joint of your thumb over the sun, the moon should be in range of the tip of your thumb.

Don’t forget to try to take photographs and share them with everyone via GAM2011 Flickr pool.

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Blogger:
Grom D.Matthies prefers daylight and thus studies the Sun and its influence on Earthlings for over 3 decades. He authored astronomical yearbooks and his work is to bring the Sun and starlight to schools and into young peoples mind all over Portugal.