The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms
2012 March 24 
"Earthshine" is not the infamous equivalent of "moonshine"; rather, it is the reflection of sunshine off the Earth's surface onto the moon's surface and back again to our eyes. This effect also has the name the ashen glow due to its grayish hue. As the title suggests the new crescent moon pictured here looks like it is cradling the old moon in its "arms". The explanation for this astronomical occurrence was given by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago. I wondered why this does not occur more often but further research explained that every 29.5 days the alignment is what causes this effect to occur. When the sun is setting and the moon in crescent, we will have the ashen glow of the moon.
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