Two bright crescents team up in the early morning the next couple of days: the Moon and the planet Venus – the brilliant “morning star.” They’re quite low as twilight begins to paint the dawn sky.

The Moon is an obvious crescent. The Sun illuminates only about one-sixth of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way – the crescent. It’s nighttime across the rest of the lunar disk.

It’s not especially dark, though. That’s because that part of the Moon is awash in earthshine – sunlight reflected off of Earth. Earth is much bigger than the Moon, and it’s more reflective. And it’s close to full as seen from the Moon, so the landscape on the nighttime part of the Moon would be much brighter than a moonlit night here on Earth.

Venus is a crescent as well. The Sun is lighting almost a quarter of the planet’s Earth-facing hemisphere. But you can’t see Venus’s phase with the eye alone – you need good binoculars or a telescope to see the shape.

Venus is fairly close to Earth now, so it’s just about as bright as it ever gets. It appears larger than average, and it’s completely covered by clouds that reflect most of the sunlight that strikes them. Over the next few months, Venus will move farther away from us. But the Sun will light up more of the hemisphere that faces Earth. So Venus will remain a bright presence in the morning sky well into fall.

We’ll have more about Venus and the Moon tomorrow.

Script by Damond Benningfield