Very Thin Young Moon setting in Volcanic Sunset.
On Thursday 17th August, the very thin young 1.5% illuminated waxing crescent Moon was photographed setting behind the northern slope of the Christmas Pass Valley between 6 and 6.20 pm despite the presence of striated thin high cloud and late volcanic sunset twilight glow. The Moon, which was less than 31 hours old, was very difficult to see with the naked eye and as the light faded required 2.5 second exposures to obtain clear images. This resulted in broadening of the very thin crescent due to the Moon’s motion during this time interval. In the accompanying image, obtained while light was still good at 6.09 pm, the crescent is sharp and a tiny Leo Constellation star is visible close to the Moon.

Tripod-mounted Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 in manual exposure mode (1 sec, f/6.1, ISO-400)

Image size reduction, minimal application of Star Spikes Pro filter to make star more clearly visible.