Three days after new moon, the thin crescent shines brightly in the western sky after sunset. This is still too young a moon upon which to go skipping among the craters. Back off with binoculars or a wide-angle eyepiece and enjoy the soft wash of earthlight on the moon.

When the moon is a thin crescent in our sky, the earth hangs full and brilliant in the moon's black firmament. The earth appears 4x larger in diameter from the moon than the moon does from earth, and every square mile of the earth reflects (on average) at least 4x as much light as the dark lavas of the moon do. The blue earth fills 4x4 = 16 times more area in the moon's sky, so shines with 4x16 = 64 times the light of the Harvest Moon. No wonder the "night side" of the moon is suffused with this soft "ashen light."

Sometimes the moon engages in stupid moon tricks.