Sometimes, the sky itself seems to smile.
A few days ago, visible over much of the world,
an unusual superposition of our Moon with the planets
Venus and
Saturn
created just such an
iconic facial expression.
Specifically, a crescent Moon appeared to make a
happy face on the night sky
when paired with seemingly nearby planets.
Pictured is the scene as it appeared over
Zacatecas,
México, with distinctive
Bufa Hill in the foreground.
On the far right and farthest in the distance is the
planet Saturn.
Significantly closer and visible to Saturn's upper left is
Venus, the brightest planet on the sky.
Just above the central horizon is
Earth's Moon in a
waning crescent phase.
To create this gigantic icon,
the crescent moon phase must be
smiling in the correct direction.