November's new moon makes a close pass to Venus

Lines shoot through the black night sky above a low faint horizon. Thin blue lines connect tiny points of light in the sky to trace constellations. A giant pair of transparent feet are hanging from above. A bright circle in the center is labeled Sun and bistected by a green line that extends from the horizon to the top. A dark circle the same size is lower right of the Sun and labeled Moon.

The new moon occurs on Nov. 1, at 8:47 a.m. Eastern Time (1247 GMT). Three days later the moon will make a close pass to Mercury in the evening sky.

A new moon happens when the moon is between the sun and Earth; technically it is at the same celestial longitude as the sun. Celestial longitude is a projection of the Earth's longitude lines on the sky; when two bodies share the same longitude that is called a conjunction. The hour of lunar phases depends on one's time zone because the phase changes according to the moon's place in its orbit rather than an observer's location on Earth.