Tonight's the night! Conjunction of Venus and the Moon!

Tonight Venus and the Moon will snuggle up together in the night sky. At their very closest they will be 3/4 of a degree apart at 10:30 E.D.T., but they will be close throughout the night. Go out and see them!

I am wondering how "old" the Moon has to be before you can see it in full daylight. I will see the Moon at night, or in the darkness of Winter mornings; I will see the gibbous Moon high opposite the sun in the morning or evening hours, and will watch the full Moon set at sunrise or rise at sunset. I've seen a half ("first quarter") Moon in full daylight, and even the "Cylon Moon". But there must be an absolute limit as to how far the Moon needs to be from the sun in the sky before you can see it in full daylight without any sort of aid. I will make a point to look for it today - and if I can manage that, then I will also be able to see Venus in full daylight! This is something I did regularly when I was a kid; the trick is to know exactly where in the sky to look, to have something (like a building) block the light of the sun, and ideally to have an object (like a cloud, or a tree branch, or a church steeple) near to the object in your field of vision. (Stephen James O'Meara recently did a column all about this trick for whichever astronomy magazine he's writing for these days - I think it's Astronomy.)

But all that's beside the point. Go out tonight and see this really beautiful conjunction. And share it with someone else, if you can!

Go here to see what Jack Horkheimer, Star Hustler has to say about this conjunction!