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[Centaur]

Here is a shot I took of the crescent Moon aged 38:05 hrs on 2007 JUL 15 at 21:09 CDT from Arlington Heights, Illinois.

It was taken with my Sony Cybershot DSC-F717 at full 5x zoom and 2560x1920 pixels. The exposure was ISO 100, F/2.4 & 0.62 sec. The only "darkroom" procedures were a cropping to 1280x960 pixels and a further shrinking to 640x480 pixels.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Curt,

Beautiful shot there, and with the familiar steeple you always catch.

We were at the Adler this evening for a private event, and fellow Telescope Operator Fred had mentioned since we just had a new Moon, if we could spot the crescent. Scanning the western skies proved futile. With the Chicago skyline and clouds near the horizon obscured any sight of the crescent.

Thanks for sharing!...

[Centaur]

Joe –

Glad you appreciated it. When I first went outside with my camera, I was discouraged by the mass of clouds in the west-northwest. But when I got to the top of the five-level parking garage, I became heartened by a gap in the clouds in the vicinity of where the Moon would be. I then patiently waited for the sky to darken and the Moon to drift into view. Voila, it appeared through the murkiness. I took numerous shots at various exposures and then selected the best one.

This evening (July 16) we’ll be able to see a pretty Diana's Bow just after it has passed slightly south of Saturn. I have more on that in my latest post in the forum for Conjunctions, etc.

-- Curt

[Centaur]

I sent the photo to Chicago WGN-TV weatherman Tom Skilling who led tonight’s weather segment with it. He also put in on the station’s website: blogs.trb.com/news/weather/weblog/wgnweather/