Upon arriving at the kennel to pick up Robbie this evening at just after 6:50 PM, I was greeted by this gorgeous view on the western horizon:

Back in May 2005, I blogged about “young-Moon hunters,” amateur astronomers who make a concerted effort to spot the Moon when it’s a barely visible slender crescent, just hours removed from New Moon. I quoted a Sky & Telescope article that stated, “Few people ever see a crescent less than 30 hours old (less than 30 hours from the moment of new Moon) unless they plan for it.”

Well, I didn’t quite prove that article wrong tonight… but I came close. I set what I believe is a new personal record — by far — for the “youngest” Moon that I’ve ever personally sighted: just 31 hours and 39 minutes old. (My previous record, according to that May ‘05 post, was 46 hours and 17 minutes.) And it happened totally by chance; I didn’t even realize the New Moon had occurred recently, so I certainly wasn’t “planning for” a lunar sighting. I just couldn’t help but notice, upon stepping out of the car, the two things that are immediately obvious in my above photo: the beautiful post-sunset colors and the gleaming bright planet Venus. And then, upon looking more closely, I noticed… something else. Did you see it above? Look again:

That’s one young Moon right there. The photo was taken at 6:53 PM EST; according to this site, the New Moon occurred at 16:14 UTC yesterday, which is 11:14 AM EST. So, like I said, the Moon is 31 hours and 39 minutes old in that photo — barely two-thirds the “age” of my previous youngest Moon ever sighted. Granted, that’s more than twice the “age” of the youngest moon ever sighted by anyone with the naked eye: 15 hours and 32 minutes. But still… not bad for a chance sighting (especially through cloud cover!).

Click on either of the photos above, or just click here, for a much larger version of the photo.