There's something behind these clouds. Those faint graceful arcs, upon inspection, are actually far, far in the distance. They are the Earth's Moon and the planet Venus . Both the Moon and Venus are bright enough to be seen during the day, and both are quite capable of showing a crescent phase . To see Venus, which appears quite small, in a crescent phase requires binoculars or a telescope. In the above dramatic daytime image taken from Budapest , Hungary , the Moon and Venus shared a similar crescent phase a few minutes before the Moon eclipsed the larger but more distant world. About an hour later, Venus reappeared.
Crescent Venus and Moon
Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2006-10-30 · NASA (public domain)
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