iirc it's actually to do with angles of light reflection off the moon or how if a bright light is shone in darkness you can't really see much around it but if a dull light is shone you can still perceive shapes around the light source (think lowering the phone brightness when it's night and how that affects our sight)
@porch_light except you can clearly see it, which was the point of my comment. I'm well aware the phase should be the new moon.
@maksee, I'm wondering if it has something to do with the location of where this was done, because that is an extremely vivid new moon, much more so than even the waxing crescent at beginning of the cycle, which has a lot of ambient light from the shadowed section.
I see. But I doubt they would do that given the nature of the photograph.
Edit, I found the source and its actually a composite done over the course of a full year, so it's likely they chose the boldest New Moon possible, for effect.
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=143738
@maksee, I'm wondering if it has something to do with the location of where this was done, because that is an extremely vivid new moon, much more so than even the waxing crescent at beginning of the cycle, which has a lot of ambient light from the shadowed section.
Edit, I found the source and its actually a composite done over the course of a full year, so it's likely they chose the boldest New Moon possible, for effect.
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=143738