April New Moon Spotting - Cheshire Cat Smile

[Centaur]

Who will be the first to spot the April New Moon with naked eyes after sunset? The Dark Moon will be in geocentric longitudinal conjunction with the Sun on 2009 APR 25 at 03:23 UT (24 at 22:23 CDT).

We’re still in that portion of the year which is favorable for spotting a really young Moon from the northern hemisphere. It’s possible that some North Americans will observe the Moon aged less than 24 hours on April 25. The 1% illuminated crescent will appear U-shaped as though it were the Cheshire Cat’s smile.

I’ve created a graphic previewing the west-northwestern sky as viewed from Chicagoland 25 minutes after sunset on April 25, although it should well serve most North American observers. It displays the Moon about 9° to the lower right of magnitude +0.2 Mercury. It can be seen by clicking: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Photos or descriptions of the April New Moon would be welcome additions to this thread. Please include the date, time, time zone and location. Good Luck!

Immediately below is a photo I took from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2009 MAR 27 (last month) of the Moon aged 32:46 hours. Below that is a photo I took from the same location two years earlier on 2007 MAR 19 of the Moon aged 21:45 hours, which is the youngest I’ve seen it.

http://www.curtrenz.com/NewMoon09Mar.jpg

http://www.curtrenz.com/MarchNewMoon.JPG

[mahesh]

We have rain forecast for the next coupladays..(excuse me, always with the bad news)...but there may be clear intervals, being eternally optimistic.

We can whoooosh / blow them away. Yes. Just like your gorgeous cat's smile did me!

And the March one, you shared with us earlier....can't believe 21 / 45 hrs Moon!
Lovely stuff Sir!

Thanks for sharing.

[AutoClub]

Hi Curt - according to the Heavens Above website, the new Moon was at 20:23 Friday, 24 April - 8:23 p.m. Pacific Daylight Savings Time. I was with a group of students and the Astronomy Professor of Pierce College in Woodland Hills (Pierce College is about 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles) on Saturday evening the 25th. I had set up a telescope, along with a few others. We spotted the Moon at 19:51 or 7:51 p.m. local time naked eye. A couple of people spotted it before I was able to see it. We put a Takahashi TOA-130 scope with a 55mm Televue eyepiece on it, and all the students were blown away. None of them (nor I) have ever seen the Moon this soon after New Moon time. So, I guess we can say we've seen it about 23 hours and 28 minutes after New.

I was not able to get a photo of this sighting, primarily because my camera was at home at the time. I don't believe any of the students (probably about 15 of them who saw it) had a camera either. What we saw was a very narrow sliver, probably 120º in length, well below what was visible tonight (Sunday) when the Moon was close to the Pleiades. We could see enough detail through the telescope to identify craters along the sun-lit portion of the Moon, so at least I knew we had nailed focus. The sky was still very bright, and it didn't take long for us to lose the Moon into some high branches of an old oak tree. We were located at Chesebro Canyon Park. Our coordinates were very close to these: Latitude: 34:08:47 North; Longitude: 118:44:19 West.

What a great evening!

Paul

[Centaur]

I was with a group of students and the Astronomy Professor of Pierce College in Woodland Hills (Pierce College is about 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles) ...
Paul

Thanks for your fine report, Paul (and your nice words, Mahesh). Glad that you and the others enjoyed the experience. So there really is a Pierce College in California. It’s mentioned by another actor in a play I’ll be in during the next few days. My character reports a fire in Woodland Hills, CA. The play is set in Calabasas, CA but is being performed at Harper College in Palatine, IL, about 25 miles northwest of Chicago. http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=1351&verbose=1771