The Waxing Crescent Moon and Venus, from Syracuse, NY

With clear skies this past weekend, I was able to capture some photographs of the Waxing Crescent Moon and the planet Venus in the sky above Syracuse, New York. 

Waxing Crescent Moon

The Crescent Moon with an illumination of 6.5%, on November 6, 2021.

On Saturday, November 6, 2021, according to NASA, approximately 6.5 percent of the Moon was illuminated during the hour in which I took the photograph of the Crescent Moon. The Waxing Crescent Moon is the phase occurring right after a New Moon. The illumination of the Moon grows to 49.9% during this phase. When I took the photograph, the Moon was in the southwestern sky, and its distance from Earth at the time was approximately 362,000 kilometers/225,000 miles. 

Venus in the southern sky 

Venus is the southern sky, on November 6, 2021.

In addition to the Crescent Moon, the planet Venus could be seen in the southern sky on Saturday night. Venus was just under 90.7 million kilometers/56.3 million miles from Earth, and the light from Venus took just over five minutes to reach Earth and my camera's sensor. Venus is currently on a path that will bring it closer to Earth over the course of the next two months, until early January 2022.

At the time, the two objects were too far apart in the night sky to get what I felt was a good photograph of them together. However, the following evening Venus was closer to the Moon in the night sky, and I was able to capture a single photograph of both the Moon and Venus.

Photographs taken on November 6, 2021, at Syracuse, New York.