Overview

• Across North America, look low in the east to east-northeast about 60–90 minutes before sunrise to see a 5–6% waning crescent beside brilliant Venus and the star Regulus, all fitting in a binocular field.
• The view changes by location, appearing nearly vertical on the U.S. East Coast, forming a tighter triangle farther west, and looking like a 'smile' in the Yukon and Alaska under darker twilight.
• The Moon occults Venus for parts of far northern Canada and Greenland and in daytime for continental Europe and northern Africa, while Regulus is occulted from a small swath of northern Siberia.
• Reports differ on rarity, with some guides calling this the tightest Moon–Venus–Regulus gathering until 2041, while catalogs note a similar tight configuration involving Regulus in 2036.
• The spectacle caps a busy stretch for skywatchers, with Saturn at opposition on Sept. 21 and a deep partial solar eclipse at sunrise on Sept. 21–22 for New Zealand, Antarctica and parts of the South Pacific.