by Anthony Ayiomamitis
The very young lunar crescent above was captured near the grounds of The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, Greece and overlooking the Aegean. With a new moon predicted for June 03/2008 at 22:22 UT+3, the image represents the moon's phase 23 hours and 17 minutes after new moon. Its distance of 358,710 km is also quite close to the minimum distance the moon can lie from the earth, thus making this crescent sliver also a perigee young moon. The thin sliver was first located using binoculars when approximately ten degrees above the local horizon and immediately thereafter at the prime focus of a Takahashi FSQ refractor where a stunning view of our closest celestial neighbour was observed over the course of 10-15 minutes.
Technical Details:
Date: June 04, 2008 21:39:38 UT+3
Location: Sounion, Greece (37.656° N, 24.014° E)
Equipment: Tak FSQ 106/f5, Canon EOS 300d
Exposure: 1 x 0.6 sec, ISO 800, RAW Image Format, 3072x2048 image size, Manual Mode
Further details etc at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-New-Moon-23hr.htm