The Final Crescent Before Conjunction

My image of the waning crescent Moon captured from the skies of the United Arab Emirates, on May 16, 2026, at 5:19 a.m. local time.

At the moment of capture, the Moon was only about 0.9% illuminated and stood roughly 5 degrees above the horizon during morning twilight. What makes this crescent particularly remarkable is that only about 18 hours and 42 minutes remained before the central conjunction (new moon phase).

The image was taken as a single exposure without stacking, revealing an extremely delicate lunar crescent shortly before the Moon entered the new moon phase.

📍 UAE
📷 Single image only
🌙 Remaining time before conjunction: ~18h 42m

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