New moon

It is so much easier to take a photograph of the full moon because we can see the round globe in the sky all through the night. It rises at about seven o'clock in the evening and sets 12 hours later. However, it is very difficult to take a picture of the new moon on the first day because of its close proximity to the sun from the earth's perspective. In fact, the new moon is impossible to see as it is on the same side of the sky as the sun. During this time, the moon and the sun rise and set at about the same time.

There are other reasons too, of course. Since the sun is so over-powering bright, we cannot see the moon, Thus, what we can normally observe as a "new" moon is actually at least two days old. As it has moved slightly away from the sun already, that is the reason why we see it as a very narrow crescent. It can be very easily missed if we don't know where to look for it. Moreover, the "new" moon only appears very low in the sky and for a short time only before the earth's rotation moves it below the horizon.

Today, for example, I had to walk to the main road about five minutes away from my house in order to have a good view of the sky and horizon. So there I was at the road junction at about 7.40pm and peering away at the darkening sky during twilight. But for a good 12 to 15 minutes, I could not see any new moon in the sky. I had almost given up hope when suddenly at 7.55pm, I caught sight of it, a very faint, thin crescent. The first new moon of the Year of the Rat.

26 Jan 2020, 7.58pm, ISO 200, f5.6, 1/3s
(second day of Chinese 1st lunar month)