Thin Crescent Moons for 2008

DateTimeAltAziSep Age Notes
Feb 5 6:55 6.0 122 19.1 38.8easy - Venus and Jupiter 15 degrees above and to right
Feb 7 18:19 5.5 252 9.6 20.6 may be a challenge nearly directly above Sun
Mar 6 6:27 4.6 106 14.8 28.8 Venus just 9.5 degrees to upper right
Mar 8 18:41 12.6 268 16.6 31.4 Moon directly above Sun very easy
Apr 4 6:52 10.1 98 22.0 40.0 extremely easy ecliptic tilts far to right tomorrow morning more difficult
Apr 5 6:50 3.1 85.6 8.9 16.0 Venus is 9.5 degrees right and slightly above opposing with April 6 th
Apr 6 20:00 7.7 283 12.0 21.0 above and 3 deg rt of Sun snag a 37 hour opposing crescent w/ Apr 5 and 6 Moon
May 4 6:19 7.8 77 14.6 25 Venus 6.5 deg below Moon another opposing crescent w/ May 5th Moon
May 5 20:19 3.9 294 8.2 13 ask Don about his May 5 th 13 hour Moon 20 years ago clear air needed!
June 2 6:02 12.5 70 19 32.3 easy 30+ hour morning crescent
June 4 20:39 12.4 294 17.4 30.3 nothing difficult here
July 2 6:07 4.7 61.5 8.7 15.2 very difficult separation sets up 38.6 hour opposing crescents
July 3 20:46 6.5 292 12.8 23.4 Venus right above sunset point with thin crescent 5 degrees above and left
July 31 6:23 7.8 68 12.0 22.8 sets up the 4 th and last opposing crescent with impossible Aug 1 st Moon
Aug 1 20:31 1.0 287 7.8 15.3 look 8 degrees to lower right of Venus IMPOSSIBLE!!
Aug 2 20:31 8.0 276 21 39.3 wide separation makes this easy
Aug 29 6:42 12 80 16.3 32.3easy Moon directly above Sun
Aug 31 20:01 1.7 268 15 29.0 tilt of ecliptic makes this wide, old Moon difficult
Sept 28 6:59 4.8 95 9.8 20.2 may be an interesting challenge
Sept 30 19:23 3.0 250 19.9 40.2 Fall evening Moons get deceptively difficult because of extreme ecliptic tilt
Oct 27 7:18 10.5 110 16.4 34.9 pretty morning crescent 3 days till evening sighting possible!!
Oct 30 18:51 6.1 235 23 48.6 try to spot the 29 th evening crescent!!
Nov 26 6:41 5.5 121 13.1 28.2 easy morning crescent
Nov 28 17:37 3.2 235 13.9 30.7 will be very pretty and easy evening crescent
Dec 26 7:00 2.0 124 10.6 23.4 could be an interesting morning challenge
Dec 28 17:47 8.4 237 15.3 35.4 easy with Mercury and Jupiter above
Can you see the thin crescent in the photo below? You can click on the image to see a full size view.
This is a detail from the photo above; the thin crescent is in the center of this photo.

Notes about the table: The date and time is when the Sun is nearest 4 degrees below the horizon since from the experience of many, that is the best time to spot thin and difficult crescents. The sky has darkened enough and the Moon is still high enough in most cases to avoid severe atmospheric extinction. I would recommend setting up before moonrise for morning moons and before sunset in the case of evening crescents. Those times can be found at the US Navy website. Or, download freeware Meridian to run locally. Altitude, Azimuth, Separation, (all in degrees) and Age (hours from new moon) were derived using MoonCalc 6.0. When using a magnetic compass, subtract 4 degrees in the Houston area. Starry Night Pro 5 was used as a graphical and sanity check on the locations of crescent moons.


Kenneth (drako) Drake
-->
Thin Crescent Moons, by Kenneth Drake