Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 September 26

                                Da Vinci Rise
                     Image Credit & Copyright: Likai Lin

   Explanation: An old Moon rose this morning, its waning sunlit crescent
   shining just above the eastern horizon before sunrise. But earthshine,
   light reflected from a bright planet Earth, lit the shadowed portion of
   the lunar disk and revealed most of a familiar lunar near side to early
   morning risers. In fact, a description of earthshine in terms of
   sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark
   surface was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. One
   lunation ago this old Moon also rose above the eastern horizon. Its
   sunlit crescent and da Vinci glow were captured in stacked exposures
   from the Badain Jilin Desert of Inner Mongolia, China on August 29,
   2019. This year marks the 500th anniversary of Leondardo da Vinci's
   death.

                      Tomorrow's picture: annotated GC
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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