Tonight (Feb. 27), as darkness is falling, be sure to look toward the west-southwest sky to spot another beautiful celestial tableau formed by a lovely crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus.
How to see Venus shining with the moon tonight : Read more
I was out observing this celestial event from about 1730-1830 EST. Clear skies, winds from NW and temperature 2C. Quite a lovely view using my 10x50 binoculars and 90-mm refractor telescope. Sunset near 1757 EST and earthshine very obvious on the waxing crescent Moon, especially after 1812 EST and later. [Viewed waxing crescent Moon and Venus near each other in SW-WSW sky tonight after sunset. The waxing crescent Moon and star, Nu Piscium fit into the same FOV at 71x . Starry Night Pro Plus 8 shows about 22' angular separation between the star and earthshine limb of the Moon. Earth rotation apparent in FOV. Starry Night reports this is a red giant star about 58 solar radii size. Sky & Telescope reports for this evening, "Thursday, Feb. 27 • The crescent Moon is 6° or 7° left of Venus during and after twilight, as shown here. How early can you spot them both? You can start trying long before sunset!" I was able to see Venus near 1739 EST, unaided eyes and when I was out at 1730, no problem viewing the waxing crescent Moon. 1812 EST, I could see the star, Nu Piscium near the earthshine lunar limb using the telescope. The eyepiece I used showed all of the waxing crescent Moon with the star. 1821 EST, I could see the Moon and star using 10x50 binoculars. Earthshine lovely in the telescope view as well as binocular view. This was an excellent time to view before sunset and after sunset until 1830 EST. Very lovely sky tonight. As I viewed this evening, a couple of flocks of geese flew by honking. The great outdoors
Using the telescope, Venus was a smaller (almost 18.5 arcsecond tonight), nearly half-moon shape with some cloud banding visible near the terminator line. The waxing crescent Moon much larger angular size (near 30 arcminute) with numerous craters visible along the terminator line, and the star, just a point of light in the eyepiece.]
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