Thursday, February 23, 2012

New Moon

Tonight (23 Feb 2012) It was the first opportunity to see the new moon of Adar. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar and the beginning of each month is decided by the moon. For the last 1600 years the calendar is calculated but before that, it was necessary to see the new moon, and to testify about it. Today, it is just nice to see the new moon each month. This month it was quiet easy, but sometime it is a real challenge.
As a bonus Mercury was near the new moon, but very hard to see. You can see it easily in the photo tough. Mercury is below and to the left of the moon. Also look how noticeable is the Earth-shine, making us see the entire moon. Rays from the sun are reflected from Earth, to the entire near  side of the moon and reflected back to US. For this reason we see the entire moon, and even some details.



Take a look at the video started from 17:38, just minutes after sunset and still in daylight. As it gets later, the moon sets, more lights are on in the far buildings. Finally the moon vanishes before it sets below the horizon. The video is from 17:38 until 19:00. I am sorry for the video degradation. If you know better ways to make a video out of many individual photos please share as comments, and I will remake it.