New Moon

A half hour or so before sunrise this morning, I walked outside and saw the most beautiful new moon I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t even aware that it was time for a new moon, so I was taken completely by surprise; a very nice surprise.

It was low in our northeast sky, just above (from my perspective) the mountains that form the northern wall around Lawson Valley. The mountains were hiding the brightening, pre-dawn sky from me, leaving the very, very thin crescent of the new moon hanging in very dark blue, almost black, sky. Just a few degrees above and to the east of the new moon was Venus, shining very brightly. In fact, Venus was quite a bit brighter than the moon — which tells you a lot about just how skinny that crescent was.

I don’t know how you could make a new moon any better. At least, not without invoking magic…