The Moon, Venus and Jupiter - Crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter - The Moon and...

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter - Crescent Moon, Venus and Jupiter - The Moon and Planets Venus (bottom) and Jupiter (right) seen on 1 December 2008. Two satellites of Jupiter are also visible, Ganymede and Callisto. A beautiful conjunction between the crescent Moon with Earthshine, brilliant Venus, and mighty Jupiter is seen in the fading twilight on the first day of December, 2008. These images were shot with a simple zoom lens on a digital camera on a fixed tripod. The Moon, at magnitude -7.9, is a waxing crescent, 4 days old. The crescent is lit by the direct light of the Sun. The “” dark”” side of the Moon can also be seen, lit by Earthshine - sunlight reflected from the day side of the Earth. Jupiter, at right, shines at magnitude -2.0. Venus, at the bottom of the image, shines at magnitude -4.1. Above and to the right of Venus, two faint 6th magnitude stars in Sagittarius can be seen. Two of Jupiter's four Galilean moons can also be seen, one on each side of the planet. Ganymede, at magnitude 5.1 is the brightest and is to the upper left of Jupiter. Callisto, at magnitude 6.1 is to the lower right of the planet. Io and Europa are too close to the planet to be resolved in this image