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By Ed Browne
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Venus and the Moon appeared nestled together in the night sky last night, and many skywatchers were there to capture the moment.
Twitter users in various countries, including the U.S., New Zealand and the U.K., uploaded their photos to social media, which all showed Venus and the Moon at varying distances from one another.
NASA had advised astrophotographers that the night would be good for getting some snapshots in a tweet issued on Sunday afternoon.
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The space agency said: "Pssst.... Look up at the moon tonight. If you step outside just after sunset (and have clear skies), you'll find a crescent moon just about two degrees away from Venus. It should be really pretty, so don't miss it."
For those who did miss the occasion, there's no need to worry. NASA states that until November 11, skywatchers will be able to watch the Moon gliding past Venus, Saturn and Jupiter every night after sunset in the south and southwest. A graphic charting the moon's path relative to those planets can be found in the space agency's tweet below.
Another night sky event to look forward to this month is a partial lunar eclipse that is set to take place overnight from November 18th to November 19th. This is caused by the Moon being partly covered by the Earth's shadow for a short period of time.
The partial lunar eclipse will occur at different times around the world depending on time zones, and will only be visible in places where the Moon is above the horizon at the time. This will include all of North and South America as well as most of Australia and the U.K., a NASA graphic shows.
For those on the U.S. east coast, it will appear at its best at around 4 a.m.
During lunar eclipses, the moon tends to take on a dark red color. That is because, even though the Earth is blocking sunlight from reaching it, some sunlight is still reaching the moon after passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
Partial Lunar Eclipse
This causes the sunlight to become bent and scattered, and due to gases in Earth's atmosphere the blue wavelengths of the light are scattered more than the red, according to the University of Rochester.
Partial lunar eclipses are more common than total ones. The next total lunar eclipse is due to occur between May 15 and May 16 in 2022, according to Space.com. It will be visible from South America, most of North America, Africa, Western Europe and New Zealand.
The moon is currently in its waxing crescent phase, meaning that less than half of it is illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon that is illuminated by sunlight will increase as the month progresses.
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