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[Centaur]

Who will be first to spot the New Moon by naked-eye after its conjunction with the Sun on 2005 JUL 06 at 07:02 CDT? After sunset on the 7th the Moon will be seen surrounded by Mercury, Venus and Saturn along with the bright stars Pollux and Castor. That may provide clues for locating the thin young Moon.

This slender young crescent Moon, a day or two old, was traditionally referred to as the New Moon. On the day of conjunction our ancestors called it the Dark Moon. However, most modern calendar makers insist on labeling the conjunction day as that of the New Moon.

Since I began this series in 2004 March within several astronomical message boards, the overall champion is Navneeth (SN1987A) in Madras, India with a 2005 January sighting 24:51 hours after conjunction.

Please report your July observation within this thread, including location and time with zone. Even negative results would be interesting. Photos would be especially nice. No prizes, just bragging rights.

I've created a graphic previewing the western sky 30 minutes after sunset on July 7 as seen from Chicago's Adler Planetarium. Nevertheless, the diagram should be useful for most North American observers. To see it, click:

www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Then click the small blue button for the "July New Moon Spotting Contest".

The graphic may be removed soon after July 7.

[Centaur]

Below is a report that an observer with the nickname Silveradogold2 in north Orange County California made at astronomy.com regarding his attempt to spot the Moon on July 6. Only southern Californians had even a slim chance yesterday.
____________

2005-07-06 20:10 PDT Visibility of the New Moon;

20:10 PDT Started my observing session by scanning the horizon with just my eyes; Although I had my printed star charts from StarCalc, I could only see Venus, which I saw immediately; The horizon was very hazy and full of a orange mixture of something I hoped not to be breathing (smog); I am using a plastic protractor equipped with a wire pointer to get rough directions in degrees;

20:12 Started observing with my 8x50 binoculars; Picked up Mercury quickly just left and a little low of Venus; Mercury twinkled in and out the haze with the atmosphere bending those light rays;
Looking back and forth at the charts and the sky, I searched and searched for Saturn, which I had planned to use as a stepping stone to find the New Moon; Not finding Saturn is fueling my frustration;

20:15 Sky is getting a little less bright but still cannot find Saturn or the New Moon; The watchman at my workplace keeps wondering what I am doing but he is keeping his distance; I guess I am too close to his car;

20:25 Cannot find Saturn and though I have scanned and re-scanned carefully I cannot find the New Moon either; Decide to end the session as I believe from this location I probably cannot see anything below about 4° above the horizon anyway; Just too much haze and junk in the air; Thoroughly frustrated as I really hoped to at least see Saturn, which would have provided an important reference to the position of the New Moon; Did not get to see either.

[Rocketman]

I was looking for it yesterday too, I use the Moon to align my telescope. I could not see it for the Sun's glare. It was only six degrees above the Sun, and less than one percent illuminated. Surely I will spot it this evening. It will be nine degrees higher than yesterday at sunset today, and two percent illuminated. Should be a piece of cake, that is, weather permitting.

[Centaur]

Well I spotted her tonight quite easily at 21:02 CDT (02:02 UT) from northwest suburban Chicago. Although 38 hours isn't much to brag about. Surely somebody east of here must've seen the Moon a bit earlier.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

We saw the very thin Crescent Moon this evening at around 2030 hrs with the aid of Binocs, right off the Adler terrace.

Quite cool to have it close by to Venus and play among the Chicago skyline...

[tim]

Hi All
Joe, before you start saying thank you for your first post. It's me, timothy. Now known as tim. I had to change my e-mail address.

Curt
I spotted the moon at 8:35 pm 07-07-05 cdt . First with my binoculars, then I could see it naked eye after I knew where it was. Then I looked at venus and mercury. They still fit into the same field of view, pretty cool. I missed the whole tri-planet conjunction due to cloud cover, bummer

[Rocketman]

Cheater

I couldn't see it because of the clouds

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

before you start saying thank you for your first post.

Lol...

Yes, I was aware it was you, but funny anyway.

I thank everyone who participates and involves themselves in the Chicago Astronomer... ;D

[Centaur]

tim said:

Hi All
Joe, before you start saying thank you for your first post. It's me, timothy. Now known as tim. I had to change my e-mail address.

Curt
I spotted the moon at 8:35 pm 07-07-05 cdt . First with my binoculars, then I could see it naked eye after I knew where it was. Then I looked at venus and mercury. They still fit into the same field of view, pretty cool. I missed the whole tri-planet conjunction due to cloud cover, bummer

Tim, thanks for your report. Please confirm whether 20:35 CDT was the time that you actually spotted the Moon by naked-eye. If so, it was the earliest sighting among those who have reported on the four message boards on which I post the contest. Joe indicates his sighting "around" 5 minutes earlier was with binoculars.

BTW, the date was given as 07-07-05, an odd case in which both the American and European format would read the same. The standard astronomical format would have read 05-07-07 or 2005-07-07 or 2005 JUL 07. The final example is the most preferred and least ambiguous. The astronomical format is more sensible than either the American or European. It keeps the most signifcant digit to the left and the least to the right.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Heh...yea...it was around the time specified. I didn't consider my spotting it was even in contention, so I didn't note the exact time. But it was certainly a very nice sliver of a Moon.

I wonder...If elevation would capture a eariler Moon? For example...if one would search for it from the top of the Sears Tower, would it be of any advantage...?

Hmmm...

[Centaur]

admin said:

Heh...yea...it was around the time specified. I didn't consider my spotting it was even in contention, so I didn't note the exact time. But it was certainly a very nice sliver of a Moon.

I wonder...If elevation would capture a eariler Moon? For example...if one would search for it from the top of the Sears Tower, would it be of any advantage...?

Hmmm...

Then either you or Tim is the winner, both at nearly the same time, about 37.5 hours. Although, I usually put the cut-off for kudos at 32 hours, which is about twice the time that is theortically possible. I was surprised not to hear from anyone on the east coast within any of the astronomical message boards in which I post the contest. Perhaps they were all under clouds.

[tim]

Curt
My first spotting was with binoculars and naked eye about 5 minutes later at 2005 JUL 07. CDT at 20:40. Did anybody see the moon and venus the next evening. The thin waxing crecsant moon floating so elegant about 5 degrees directly over venus.


tim

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

As Tim was more meticulous, I'll concede the win to him, but cool that I even came close!...

[tim]

Joe
I'll be more than happy to share the kudos with you. I'm sure neither one of us took more than a qwick glance at our watch's. Thers got to be some kind of instantaneous quantum leap thing going on here.

tim