<\/p>\n Be sure to stake out a spot with a clear view of the western horizon to give yourself the best chance of spotting the moon<\/a> and Mars together before they slip below the skyline a little over an hour after sunset on Aug. 26.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Through a pair of 10×50 binoculars, you’ll also be able to spot the ancient lava plain of Mare Crisium (Latin for the Sea of Crises), which is visible as a dark oval slightly above the lunar equator, with the eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis (the Sea of Fertility) below.<\/p>\n To complete the scene, Spica \u2014 the brightest star in the constellation Virgo<\/a> \u2014 will glisten to the upper left of the moon, while the dimmer star Porrima will shine roughly 3 degrees to the upper right of Mars.<\/p>\n The crescent moon and Mars pictured below the stars of the constellation Virgo. (Image credit: Chris Vaughan\/Starry Night)<\/p>\n Celestron NexStar 8SE<\/p>\n (Image credit: Amazon)<\/p>\n We reckon the Celestron NexStar 8SE<\/a> is the best motorized telescope out there as it’s great for astrophotography, deep-space observing and it offers stunning detailed imagery. It is a little pricey but for what you get, it’s good value. For a more detailed look, you can check out our Celestron NexStar 8SE review<\/a>.<\/p>\n By the following night, the crescent moon will have swept away from Mars, past Spica<\/a> on a path that will see it rendezvous with the red supergiant star Antares<\/a> in the constellation Scorpius on the night before the first quarter moon phase<\/a> on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n Stargazers hoping to get a closer view of the lunar surface should read our roundup of the best telescope deals available in 2025<\/a>, while photographers should check out our guide on how to capture the moon’s surface.using a DSLR camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor’s Note: If you would capture an image of the crescent moon with Mars and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look to the western horizon to catch a fleeting glimpse of the thin crescent moon alongside the red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-96931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KARgmrudS5MnanqM2xSkS9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Celestron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/onajYkhMdBFzBAJKyo4JpC.jpg\")
<\/p>\n