APOD: 2019 September 26 - Da Vinci Rise

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Da Vinci Rise." An old Moon rose this morning, its waning sunlit crescent shining just above the eastern horizon before sunrise. So what does that have to do with Dan Brown? Nothing. Earthshine, light reflected from a bright planet Earth, lights up the shadowed portion of the lunar disk and reveals most of a familiar lunar near side to those of us who get up early. The concept of earthshire, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface was first conceived over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. This stacked image from August 2019 captures the same crescent Moon lit by earthshine rising above the eastern horizon of the Badain Jilin Desert (China). Da Vinci died in 1519.