Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
July 29, 2013

-Last-quarter Moon (exact at 1:43 p.m. EDT). The Moon rises around midnight tonight, shining below the stars of Aries. As it climbs higher through the morning hours, look well to its lower left for the Pleiades.

- A pair of CMEs launched into space on July 26th by erupting solar filaments will apparently miss Earth. The odds of a geomagnetic storm this weekend are low.

Astro Picture of the Day:
July 29, 2013

Source:
This is not a solar eclipse. Pictured above is a busy vista of moons and rings taken at Saturn. The large circular object in the center of the image is Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and one of the most intriguing objects in the entire Solar System. The dark spot in the center is the main solid part of the moon. The bright surrounding ring is atmospheric haze above Titan, gas that is scattering sunlight to a camera operating onboard the robotic Cassini spacecraft. Cutting horizontally across the image are the rings of Saturn, seen nearly edge on. At the lower right of Titan is Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn. Since the image was taken pointing nearly at the Sun, the surfaces of Titan and Enceladus appear in silhouette, and the rings of Saturn appear similar to a photographic negative. Now if you look really really closely at Enceladus, you can see a hint of icy jets shooting out toward the bottom of the image. It is these jets that inspired future proposals to land on Enceladus, burrow into the ice, and search for signs of extraterrestrial life.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
July 30, 2013

-Bright Vega shines nearly overhead these evenings, for those of us at mid-northern latitudes. Look southeast for Altair, almost as bright. Above Altair by a finger-width at arm's length is its little orange sidekick Tarazed, 3rd magnitude.

-Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet 96P/Machholz, source of the annual Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower. The shower's broad peak, centered on July 30th, is expected to produce a meteor every 4 or 5 minutes during the dark hours before local sunrise. Southern hemisphere observers are favored.

-On July 24th, about an hour after sunset, Gerardo Connon of Rio Grande city in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, walked outside and witnessed a rare display of nacreous clouds. The colorful apparition was as bright as the street lights in the city. These clouds, also known as "mother of pearl clouds," form in the stratosphere far above the usual realm of weather. They are seldom seen, but when they are, the reports usually come from high-northern parts of our planet. This apparition over Tierra del Fuego was unusual indeed. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains the special conditions required to create such a cloud: "Take an unusually cold lower stratosphere (15-25km high), use some gravity waves generated by high winds and storms in the troposphere to stir in some water vapour, and - voilà! You get these clouds made of tiny ice crystals shining after sunset with unforgettably bright iridescent colors."

News Posted Today:
July 29, 2013
Supernova Erupts in M74


Astro Picture of the Day:
July 30, 2013

Source:
In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the Eskimo Nebula. From the ground, NGC 2392 resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the Eskimo Nebula in visible light, while the nebula was imaged in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2007. The above combined visible-X ray image, with X-rays emitted by central hot gas and shown in pink, was released last week. From space, the nebula displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood. The Eskimo Nebula is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments. The Eskimo Nebula spans about 1/3 of a light year and lies in our Milky Way Galaxy, about 3,000 light years distant, toward the constellation of the Twins (Gemini).

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
July 31, 2013

-Find Altair again high in the southeast after dark. To its right, by about a fist and a half at arm's length, is the dim but distinctive little constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin, jumping leftward.

-Solar activity remains low. The only action on the Earthside of the sun is a minor crackling of C-class solar flares from departing sunspot AR1800. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of M-class flares and no more than a 1% chance of X-flares on July 31st.

Astro Picture of the Day:
July 31, 2013

Source:
How has the surface temperature of Earth been changing? To help find out, Earth scientists collected temperature records from over 1000 weather stations around the globe since 1880, and combined them with modern satellite data. The above movie dramatizes the result showing 130 years of planet-wide temperature changes relative to the local average temperatures in the mid-1900s. In the above global maps, red means warmer and blue means colder. On average, the display demonstrates that the temperature on Earth has increased by nearly one degree Celsius over the past 130 years, and many of the warmest years on record have occurred only recently. Global climate change is of more than passing interest - it is linked to global weather severity and coastal sea water levels.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 1, 2013

-The asteroid 3 Juno is brightest at opposition this week, glimmering at magnitude 9.0 at the Aquarius-Aquila border.

-Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter shine low in the east-northeast during dawn. Jupiter is the highest and brightest (magnitude –1.9). Look for faint Mars (magnitude +1.6) a little to Jupiter's lower left. Look below them, and perhaps a bit left, for Mercury, which brightens from magnitude +1 to 0 this week. Best time: about 60 to 40 minutes before your local sunrise. See the illustrations above. Binoculars may help with the fainter two planets, especially through summer haze.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 1, 2013

Source:
The Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda (aka M31), a mere 2.5 million light-years distant, is the closest large spiral to our own Milky Way. Andromeda is visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch, but because its surface brightness is so low, casual skygazers can't appreciate the galaxy's impressive extent in planet Earth's sky. This entertaining composite image compares the angular size of the nearby galaxy to a brighter, more familiar celestial sight. In it, a deep exposure of Andromeda, tracing beautiful blue star clusters in spiral arms far beyond the bright yellow core, is combined with a typical view of a nearly full Moon. Shown at the same angular scale, the Moon covers about 1/2 degree on the sky, while the galaxy is clearly several times that size. The deep Andromeda exposure also includes two bright satellite galaxies, M32 and M110 (bottom).

[Bluearrowll]

Just a heads up that until August 12, I'm moving into my living quarters at the Rexall Centre as a 24/7 stand by IT staff for the Rogers Cup tournament beginning in Montreal today, and in Toronto tomorrow. I may or may not be able to get around to these posts at a reasonable time.

What's in the sky tonight?
August 2, 2013

-Earth is entering a broad stream of debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won't peak until August 12-13, when Earth hits the densest part of the stream, the first Perseids are already arriving. "Despite poor weather over our network of meteor cameras, we detected three Perseid fireballs on July 30-31," reports Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. In the diagram he made below, the green lines trace the orbits of Perseid meteoroids. All three intersect Earth (the blue dot). The orbit of the parent comet is color-coded purple. An inset shows one of the fireballs shining almost as brightly as the Moon.

-The shower is just getting started. Rates should remain low for the next week as Earth penetrates the sparse outskirts of the debris stream, then skyrocket to ~100 meteors per hour as the calendar turns to the second week of August. Stay tuned for more fireballs.

-As summer begins to wane, The Big Dipper hangs diagonally on the wall of the northwestern sky during evening. It's about as high as bright Arcturus, shining left of it in the west.

-In early dawn Saturday morning (you can set your alarm), the waning crescent Moon hangs to the upper right of Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury low in the east-northeast.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 2, 2013

Source:
This intriguing monument can be found in Taiwan between the cities of Hualian and Taitong. Split into two sides, it straddles a special circle of latitude on planet Earth, near 23.5 degrees north, known as the Tropic of Cancer. Points along the Tropic of Cancer are the northernmost locations where the Sun can pass directly overhead, an event that occurs once a year during the northern hemisphere's summer solstice. The latitude that defines the Tropic of Cancer corresponds to the tilt of planet Earth's rotation axis with respect to its orbital plane. The name refers to the zodiacal constellation Cancer the Crab. Historically the Sun's position was within Cancer during the northern summer solstice, but because of the precession of Earth's axis, that solstice Sun is currently within the boundaries of Taurus. In this starry night scene the otherwise all white structure is colored by city lights, with its orange side just south of the Tropic of Cancer and the white side just north. Of course, there is a southern hemisphere counterpart of the Tropic of Cancer called the Tropic of Capricorn.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 3, 2013

-During Sunday dawn an even thinner waning Moon poses to the right of the Jupiter-Mars-Mercury line.

-Magnetic fields in the sun's northern hemisphere have opened up, forming a coronal hole. This UV image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the opening as a dark gap in the sun's upper atmosphere.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 3, 2013

Source:
A careful look at this colorful cosmic snapshot reveals a surprising number of galaxies both near and far toward the constellation Ursa Major. The most striking is NGC 3718, the warped spiral galaxy near picture center. NGC 3718's spiral arms look twisted and extended, mottled with young blue star clusters. Drawn out dust lanes obscure its yellowish central regions. A mere 150 thousand light-years to the right is another large spiral galaxy, NGC 3729. The two are likely interacting gravitationally, accounting for the peculiar appearance of NGC 3718. While this galaxy pair lies about 52 million light-years away, the remarkable Hickson Group 56 can also be seen clustered above NGC 3718, near the top of the frame. Hickson Group 56 consists of five interacting galaxies and lies over 400 million light-years away. This picture was chosen as the overall winner in the 2013 David Malin Astrophotography Competition.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 4, 2013

-The asteroid 3 Juno is brightest at opposition this week, glimmering at magnitude 9.0 at the Aquarius-Aquila border.

-Venus (magnitude –3.9) shines brightly very low in the west in evening twilight. In a telescope Venus is still small (13 arcseconds) and gibbous (81% sunlit).

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 4, 2013

Source:
Like the downtown area of your favorite city and any self-respecting web site, Io's surface is constantly under construction. This moon of Jupiter holds the distinction of being the Solar System's most volcanically active body - its bizarre looking surface continuously formed and reformed by lava flows. Generated using 1996 data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, this high resolution composite image is centered on the side of Io that always faces away from Jupiter. It has been enhanced to emphasize Io's surface brightness and color variations, revealing features as small as 1.5 miles across. The notable absence of impact craters suggests that the entire surface is covered with new volcanic deposits much more rapidly than craters are created. What drives this volcanic powerhouse? A likely energy source is the changing gravitational tides caused by Jupiter and the other Galilean moons as Io orbits the massive gas giant planet. Heating Io's interior, the pumping tides would generate the sulfurous volcanic activity.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 5, 2013

-The little constellation Scutum, off the tail of Aquila, is faint to the naked eye but important for its super-rich Milky Way field and its deep-sky objects. How many can you find?

-Castor and Pollux are to the left of Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, and Orion is much farther to their right.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 5, 2013

Source:
What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth, eight years ago, on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is now in orbit around Mercury and has recently concluded the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that has left and will never return - at the end of its mission MESSENGER will be crashed into Mercury's surface.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 6, 2013

-A binocular challenge: Spot Venus in twilight low in the west and then, using binoculars, see if you can detect the 4.0-magnitude star that it's closely passing. The star is Sigma Leonis, Leo's hind foot, just 0.6° above Venus depending on your time and location.

-New Moon (exact at 5:51 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

-Data from NASA-supported observatories show that the sun's global magnetic field will flip before the end of 2013. The reversal, which signals the arrival of Solar Maximum, will have ripple effects felt throughout the solar system.

News Posted Today:
August 5, 2013
Subaru Sees New Planet Directly


Astro Picture of the Day:
August 6, 2013

Source:
Strange shapes and textures can be found in neighborhood of the Cone Nebula. The unusual shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars. The brightest star on the right of the above picture is S Mon, while the region just below it has been nicknamed the Fox Fur Nebula for its color and structure. The blue glow directly surrounding S Mon results from reflection, where neighboring dust reflects light from the bright star. The red glow that encompasses the whole region results not only from dust reflection but also emission from hydrogen gas ionized by starlight. S Mon is part of a young open cluster of stars named NGC 2264, located about 2500 light years away toward the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). Even though it points right at S Mon, details of the origin of the mysterious geometric Cone Nebula, visible on the far left, remain a mystery.

[Hateandhatred]

I just learned that Hubble v2 will be named after Synthlight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

roflmao!

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 7, 2013

-Bright Vega passes closest to overhead around 10 or 11 p.m., depending on how far east or west you are in your time zone. How closely it misses your zenith depends on how far north or south you live. It passes right through the zenith if you're at latitude 39° north (Washington DC, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Lake Tahoe). How closely can you judge this by looking?

-Yesterday, August 6th, the new Moon passed in front of the sun, producing a partial solar eclipse. The only place to see it was from space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) photographed the eclipse from geosynchronous orbit approximately 36,000 km above Earth's surface. Beyond the novelty of observing an eclipse from space, these images have practical value to the SDO science team. The sharp edge of the lunar limb helps researchers measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope - e.g., how light diffracts around the telescope's optics and filter support grids. Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen the images even more than before.

-Launched on August 3rd, Japan's unmanned HTV-4 cargo carrier is now chasing the International Space Station around Earth. The two spaceships will rendevous on Friday, August 9th. Meanwhile, skywatchers are enjoying the chase. The below picture is from Gary of Fort Davis, Texas when he witnessed a bright flare from the HTV-4 reflecting sunlight.

News Posted Today:
August 6, 2013
Get Ready for the 2013 Perseids


Astro Picture of the Day:
August 7, 2013

Source:
What's going on behind that volcano? Quite a bit. First of all, the volcano itself, named Kirkjufell, is quite old and located in western Iceland near the town of Grundarfjörður. In front of the steeply-sloped structure lies a fjord that had just begun to freeze when the above image was taken - in mid-December of 2012. Although quite faint to the unaided eye, the beautiful colors of background aurorae became quite apparent on the 25-second exposure. What makes this image is of particular note, though, is that it also captures streaks from the Geminids meteor shower - meteors that might not have been evident were the aurora much brighter. Far in the distance, on the left, is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while stars from our local part of the Milky Way appear spread across the background. This weekend the Perseids meteor shower will peak and may well provide sky enthusiasts with their own memorable visual experiences.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 8, 2013

-The Perseid meteor shower is ramping up! It should peak late this Sunday and Monday nights.

-Saturn (magnitude +0.7, in Virgo) glows in the southwest as twilight fades, with Spica 12° to its lower right. As night grows darker look almost as far to Saturn's left for fainter Alpha Librae.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 8, 2013

Source:
Similar in size and grand design to our own Milky Way, spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Recorded here in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the big, beautiful face-on spiral does steal the show, but the sharp image also reveals an impressive array of background galaxies in the field, strewn across the more distant Universe. Looking within NGC 3370, the image data has proved sharp enough to study individual pulsating stars known as Cepheids that can be used to accurately determine this galaxy's distance. NGC 3370 was chosen for this study because in 1994 the spiral galaxy was also home to a well studied stellar explosion - a type Ia supernova. Combining the known distance to this standard candle supernova, based on the Cepheid measurements, with observations of supernovae at even greater distances, can reveal the size and expansion rate of the Universe itself.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 9, 2013

-Early in twilight, about a half hour after sunset, look very low in the west below Venus for the thin crescent Moon, as shown at right. Binoculars will help.

-NOAA forecastesrs estimate a 65% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on August 10th when one and perhaps two CMEs are expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The incoming clouds were propelled from the sun by a flurry of erupting magnetic filaments on Aug. 6-7. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

-On August 3rd, Japan launched a robotic spacecraft, the HTV-4, to re-supply the International Space Station (ISS). Last night, Larry Sloss saw the HTV-4 in hot pursuit of the ISS in the twilight skies over Priest Lake, Idaho. Many observers noted "HTV-4 flares" this week. Apparently sunlight is glinting off a flat surface of the spacecraft, briefly raising its luminosity to match that of the much larger ISS. HTV-4 has an interesting payload. Among the 5.4 tons of food, spare parts, and other supplies are Kirobo, a talking robot to join the crew of the ISS, and Firestation, an experiment to study mysterious Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes. Docking was scheduled at approximately 4:30 AM EDT on Friday August 9th.

News Posted Today:
August 7, 2013
Under Stress, Asteroids May Be Fragile


Astro Picture of the Day:
August 9, 2013

Source:
Medieval Albrechtsberg castle is nestled in trees near the northern bank of the river Pielach and the town of Melk, Austria. In clearing night skies on August 12, 2012 it stood under constellations of the northern summer, including Aquarius, Aquila, and faint, compact Delphinus (above and right of center) in this west-looking skyview. The scene also captures a bright meteor above the castle walls. Part of the annual perseid meteor shower, its trail points back toward the heroic constellation Perseus high above the horizon in the early morning hours. Entering the atmosphere at about 60 kilometers per second, perseid meteors are swept up dust grains from the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle. Of course, this year's perseid meteors will flash through night skies this weekend.

[igotrhythm]

Tangentially relevant. As per the CC 2.5 license, here's the link: http://xkcd.com/1249/

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 10, 2013

-The waxing crescent Moon shines well to the left of Venus low in twilight.

-Look far down to Mars's lower left, as dawn brightens, for Mercury (magnitude —1). It's sinking lower every day. Don't confuse Mercury with Procyon, far down to Mars's lower right.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 10, 2013

Source:
The two bright meteors flashing through this night skyscape from August 7 are part of the ongoing Perseid meteor shower. In the direction indicated by both colorful streaks, the shower's radiant in the eponymous constellation Perseus is at the upper right. North star Polaris, near the center of all the short, arcing star trails is at the upper left. But also named for its pose against the sky, the monastery built on the daunting sandstone cliffs in the foreground is part of Meteora. A World Heritage site, Meteora is a historic complex of lofty monasteries located near Kalabaka in central Greece.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 11, 2013

-The annual Perseid meteor shower should be at its most active late tonight and tomorrow night. (The expected peak time, 2 p.m. EDT August 12th, is ideal for the Far East; for North America it splits the difference between the early morning hours of the 12th and 13th.)

-For more information on the Perseids, consult here http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...218037521.html

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 11, 2013

Source:
If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces, M74 presents a gorgeous face-on view. Classified as an Sc galaxy, the grand design of M74's graceful spiral arms are traced by bright blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes. Constructed from image data recorded in 2003 and 2005, this sharp composite is from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Spanning about 30,000 light-years across the face of M74, it includes exposures recording emission from hydrogen atoms, highlighting the reddish glow of the galaxy's large star-forming regions. Recently, many astronomers are tracking a bright supernova that has been seen in M74.

[Staiain]

I'd love to see some meteors oooo

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 12, 2013

-The annual Perseid meteor shower should be at its most active late tonight. (The expected peak time, 2 p.m. EDT August 12th, is ideal for the Far East; for North America it splits the difference between the early morning hours of the 12th and 13th.)

-During and after dusk, spot Saturn above the waxing crescent Moon in the southwest. Look lower right of the Moon for Spica. Much higher to their upper right shines Arcturus.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 12, 2013

Source:
Are asteroids dangerous? Some are, but the likelihood of a dangerous asteroid striking the Earth during any given year is low. Because some past mass extinction events have been linked to asteroid impacts, however, humanity has made it a priority to find and catalog those asteroids that may one day affect life on Earth. Pictured above are the orbits of the over 1,000 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). These documented tumbling boulders of rock and ice are over 140 meters across and will pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth - about 20 times the distance to the Moon. Although none of them will strike the Earth in the next 100 years - not all PHAs have been discovered, and past 100 years, many orbits become hard to predict. Were an asteroid of this size to impact the Earth, it could raise dangerous tsunamis, for example. Of course rocks and ice bits of much smaller size strike the Earth every day, usually pose no danger, and sometimes creating memorable fireball and meteor displays.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 13, 2013

-The first-quarter Moon shines in the southwest at nightfall, with Saturn to its right and Antares farther to its left. Quite close to the Moon is Alpha Librae, a wide double star for binoculars. The Moon occults (covers) Alpha Librae for much of South America.

-The Perseid meteor shower is underway. Last night, international observers counted more than 120 meteors per hour from dark sky sites. Sky watchers should remain alert for Perseids during the dark hours between midnight and sunrise as Earth passes through the debris stream of parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. According to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, the Perseid meteor -shower produces more fireballs than any other annual shower. Last night, Mike Lewinski of Embudo, New Mexico, photographed "the brightest fireball I've ever seen." It was an impressive Perseid, even though he caught only half of it.

-Want to listen to the meteor shower? Use the spaceweather radio here: http://spaceweatherradio.com/

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 13, 2013

Source:
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaked over the past few days is known as the Perseids - the meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward Perseus. Three dimensionally, however, sand-sized debris expelled from Comet Swift-Tuttle follows a well-defined orbit about our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of the Perseus. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Perseus. Pictured above, a composite of 13 early images from this year's Pereids meteor shower shows many bright meteors that streaked through the sky the night of August 11 near Oakland, Ontario, Canada.

[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
August 14, 2013

-Look for orange Antares lower left of the Moon after dusk, with the other stars of upper Scorpius around it. Near the zenith shines the Summer Star, Vega.

-The Perseid meteor shower, which peaked on August 12-13 with as many as 120 meteors per hour, is slowly subsiding as Earth exits the debris stream of parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Sky watchers should nevertheless remain alert for meteors tonight between midnight and sunrise. It will take several days for the Perseid rate to drop to zero.

Astro Picture of the Day:
August 14, 2013

Source:
It took three worlds to create this simple image. The first world was the Earth, which was quite prominent. The dividing line running horizontally below the middle separates sea from sky. On this part of the Earth, it was almost nighttime. The second world was the Moon, which was almost invisible. The Moon had its unilluminated half masked by the red sunset glow of Earth's sky. A thin sliver of the new Moon was visible, a crescent that traces the bright curving line. The third world was the Sun, which does not appear directly. All of the light recorded in the image originated from the Sun. The above half-second exposure was taken last week from Anping, Taiwan. A few minutes after this image was taken the Earth had spun just a little bit further - forcing the Moon to follow the Sun into the sea - and the horizon to become dark.