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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Two crescents: New moon, old Venus

Two crescents: New moon, old Venus
Two crescents: New moon, old Venus A day-old Moon and a waning Venus crescent appeared very close to each other in the sunset sky on January 2, 2014 (left). Cutting out and comparing the two crescents to each other shows their similar illumination but dissimilar sizes (right). Venus, roughly four times the diameter of the Moon, was near inferior conjunction so about 50 million kilometers away (more than 100 times farther away than the Moon). Pal Varadi Nagy

Here is the image of just the Moon and Venus crescents compared.

Moon and Venus crescents
Moon and Venus crescents This is a composite photo; the crescents were not actually this close to each other in the sky at the time they were photographed.Image: Pál Váradi Nagy