2021, July 1- 7, Morning Moon

July 1 – July 7, 2021, the waning crescent appears in the eastern sky.  Early in the viewing period, the moon is among the dim stars of Pisces.  As the week progresses, the moon wanes and moves farther eastward, appearing near Taurus.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

The morning moon appears in the eastern sky during July 1 to July 7.  Look eastward at one hour before sunrise.

Each morning the moon is farther eastward and the phase is noticeably thinner. 

At the season an hour before sunrise, the sky is brightening.  A binocular is helpful to locate the starry background.

Here are the highlights for the seven days:

July 1: The moon (55% illuminated) is about 35° up in the southeast and over 30° to the left of bright Jupiter. The moon is at its Last Quarter phase later today.

July 2:  The thick crescent (45%) is in front of the stars of Cetus, one-third of the way up in the east-southeast.

July 3: The waning crescent (36%) is one-third of the way up in the east-southeast, 30° to the east of the Pleiades star cluster.

July 4: The crescent (27%) is about 20° to the right of Pleaides.  It between Menkar, the brightest star in Cetus, and Hamal, in Aries.

July 5: The crescent (19%) is about 10° to the right of Pleiades and 18° to the upper right of Aldebaran.

July 6:  The lunar crescent (12%) is to the right of a line from the Pleiades to Aldebaran, 6.7° below the star cluster and 7.0° above the star.

July 7:  The crescent moon (6%) is nearly 10° up in the east-northeast, 8.2° to the left of Aldebaran.

As the image from 2020 above shows, the night portion of the moon is gently illuminated by earthshine; sunlight reflected from Earth’s clouds, oceans, and land.

Earthshine can be photographed with a tripod mounted camera.  Depending on the camera’s settings the exposure can take a few seconds.  The photographic properties of the image, 300mm lens, f 5.6, ISO 400, 5 seconds.

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