Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
April 18, 1999
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
April 18, 1999
Explanation: The Moon, Saturn, and Venus shine above while city lights twinkle below in the deepening twilight of March 19. Taken from outside Indio, California, the photo shows the city lights of Indio and nearby Palm Springs. The brilliant lunar crescent is over exposed here with Saturn about 4 degrees away to the upper right and bright Venus still farther to the right only another 2 degrees or so. This Sunday evening, April 18, another dramatic lunar spectacle should be easily visible to stargazers in the western and midwestern US when the crescent moon passes in front of the bright star Aldebaran.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.:
Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA/
GSFC
&
Michigan Tech. U.