Young Crescent Moon Meets Venus and Jupiter This Week
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- Young crescent moon passes Venus and then Jupiter in the western sky after sunset this week, with the nightly progression offering a visible demonstration of the moon's orbital movement around Earth.
- On 18 May at 22:00 from London, the moon is just 2.4 days old with only 6.2% of its visible surface illuminated, sitting in a slim arc close to bright Venus.
- Jupiter appears higher and dimmer than Venus in the lineup, while the Gemini stars Castor and Pollux are the faintest objects in the grouping.
- Over subsequent nights the moon drifts eastward toward Jupiter, with its illuminated percentage growing each night as its angular separation from the sun increases.
- Southern hemisphere viewers get a better vantage, as the ecliptic tilts more steeply upward from the horizon at this time of year and lifts the conjunction higher in the post-sunset sky.
- Stargazers are advised to pick a spot with an unobstructed western horizon to catch the alignment before the objects sink below it.
Why it matters: Skywatchers who catch this several-night sequence can watch the moon's eastward drift night by night — a rare naked-eye demonstration of its orbit. Southern hemisphere observers get a better show because the steeper ecliptic tilt lifts the conjunction higher above the horizon, placing Venus, Jupiter, and the thin crescent in clearer view after sunset.
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