Moon waxes to first quarter

Wednesday’s new moon marks the start of a new lunar cycle. As our closest neighbor in space moves east, away from the sun, a very young thin crescent moon can be seen Friday evening, 15 degrees above the western horizon in Taurus.

The waxing crescent moon will track through the ecliptic and the zodiac as it moves higher in the western sky and farther away from the sunset this week. By Sunday evening the waxing crescent moon will sit below Gemini’s two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux. And by Monday, the crescent will have climbed to the left of the twin stars. By next Tuesday evening, the moon will have waxed to first-quarter phase and sit 5 degrees below the Beehive star cluster in Cancer.

During the moon’s early crescent phases this week, it’s also possible to see the dark disc of the moon faintly lighted. This phenomena is possible because of earthshine, the reflection of sunlight off Earth and over to the moon.