{"id":928702,"date":"2026-07-11T22:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/928702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:14:15","slug":"astro-bob-stuck-on-the-sickle-moon-duluth-news-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/928702\/","title":{"rendered":"Astro Bob: Stuck on the sickle moon – Duluth News Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the moon drops out of the scene the stars shine in all their grandeur. While a moonless sky is an uplifting sight, I’d miss the extra dimension Earth’s orbital companion brings to the night sky were it to disappear for good. The moon stabilizes Earth’s axis. Without it, the planet would wobble and result in radical changes in climate. Not to mention smaller tides, effects on nocturnal species and sweet romance.<\/p>\n

The past week (July 6-12) the moon has risen well after midnight, so views of the summer Milky Way have been fantastic. On Sunday morning, July 12, the crescent rises shortly before 3 a.m. in the northeastern sky just 2 days before new moon. Its upper cusp will appear first and resemble a shark’s fin cresting the horizon.<\/p>\n

\"Moon<\/p>\n

At new moon, the moon passes between the sun and Earth. We can’t see a new moon (except during a solar eclipse) because we face the lunar night side, and the moon is drowned out by daylight. On either side of new moon, the moon is a crescent \u2014 waning then waxing. <\/p>\n

Contributed \/ Bob King<\/p>\n

Thin moons always come with plentiful earthshine \u2014 sunlight reflected from Earth that’s reflected a second time off the moon and back to our eyes. The ghostly, blue-gray glow fills out the nighttime part of the moon. An astronaut there would look up and see a dark, starry sky with Earth’s colorful globe illuminating the landscape. <\/p>\n

Earth also goes through phases as seen from the moon, but they’re complementary. When we see a crescent, Earth is close to full phase (Full Earth) as seen from the moon and some 50 times brighter than a full moon.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, July 13, the moon will be just one day from new, providing an opportunity to see one of the slenderest crescents possible. How thin will it be? Enough to look like it would crumble if you touched it. Only 1.5% of the moon will be in sunlight. <\/p>\n

\"Old<\/p>\n

Look for the “old” moon at mid-dawn on July 13 low in the northeastern sky. The moon will be just 24 hours from new.<\/p>\n

Contributed \/ Stellarium<\/p>\n

Find a site with an unobstructed horizon (Lake Superior, for instance) and use binoculars to help your you coax it from the twilight glow. You’ll want to look very low in the northeastern sky almost directly below the star Capella, pictured in the map. The moon will be just 3 degrees high \u2014 two fingers held together at arm’s length \u2014 around 4:30 a.m., an hour before sunrise. Timing and low altitude make this a challenging sighting. But if conditions allow, and the weather looks mostly clear in the nights ahead, it will be a thrill to see. <\/p>\n

\"Moon<\/p>\n

An easy-to-see and lovely scene awaits skywatchers at dusk on July 16. <\/p>\n

Contributed \/ Stellarium<\/p>\n

If you’re more of an evening person, your time arrives on Thursday, July 16, when the 3-day-old crescent creates a charming scene with Venus at dusk. Find a clear view to the west this and look around 10 p.m., an hour after sunset. The following night a banana-thick moon shines to the left (east) of the planet. Venus also shows phases and is currently a “thick” half-moon when viewed in a small telescope. <\/p>\n

The moon lures us to the sky. Makes us look up. Once you’re hooked it’s easy to include the sky in your life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n “Astro” Bob King is a freelance writer and retired photographer for the Duluth News Tribune. You can reach him at nightsky55@gmail.com.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the moon drops out of the scene the stars shine in all their grandeur. While a moonless…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":928703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[4514,12460,240796,12458,27902,2540,159,99487,783,4810,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-928702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astronomy","tag-aurora-borealis","tag-constellations","tag-northern-lights","tag-planets","tag-satellites","tag-science","tag-skywatching","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116903653659746465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}