A close encounter between the planet Mercury and the crescent moon, with the planet Venus as a spectator, was photographed by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, head of the Virtual Telescope Project.
"The show started shortly after sunset," says Masi. "The Moon and the luminous planet Venus, definitely lower towards the horizon, were the first two stars to light up in the colors of twilight. A few minutes later - adds the astrophysicist - just north of our satellite, also the elusive Mercury, ideally placed in the western sky in these evenings ".
Particularly striking, concludes Masi, "the ashen light of the Moon, that is the weak brightness of its disk not yet directly reached by the light of the Sun, illuminated by the glow diffused from the Earth".