I observed this nice pairing of Venus with the crescent moon from the front of my home in central Arizona. The dark portion of the moon is slightly visible due to bright light reflect from the Earth toward the moon and is known as Earth shine. This is the same effect that we see here during a full or close to full moon that allows us to see fairly well at night, but taking place on the moon as it sees an almost full Earth.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Camera: Canon EOS 20D digital camera
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM set to 200mm
Exposure: 0.8 seconds at f/8
Camera Mode: ISO 100 RAW
Date and Time: Oct 6, 2005 at 6:36pm MST
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2 for RAW conversion and image processing
Updated: 6 October 2005