A heavenly trio

A picture never does the real thing justice...

I find that especially so for the pictures that I take.

Regardless of that, I wanted to share this mornings pre-dawn sky.

Seeing it in person it was stunning.

This morning about 6am local time the waning moon created a

right triangle with Venus and Mercury.

Venus is the brighter star to the right of the moon, and Mecury is below and to the right
of the moon.

The crescent moon was partially illuminated by "earthshine" - the reflection of the suns light

off of the earth, much as the full moon illuminates earth at night.

Viewed from the moon the earth would appear "full" right now as the cyles are reversed.
The earth appears "full" from the moon when the moon is "new" or unseen from earth,
and vise versa.

I subscribe to a daily email newsletter that keeps me up to date on the current

celestial happenings (and cuts down on my sleep time).

This month you have an opportunity to get up about an hour and a half before sunrise

and see 5 planets all neatly aligned in an arch along the elliptic plane - the path that they and

the sun take across our sky.

Grab a cup of Joe and enjoy the morning sky.