Moon and Planets from an Ancient Crater

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day and National Geographic News gathering of three bright planets and the Moon in the morning sky. Move the slider on the image to see the planets labels. With Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and a narrow lunar crescent close to the eastern horizon in the dawn twilight, this picture of the beautiful conjunction was recorded near Nordlingen, Germany. Nordlingen is a town in Bavaria and amazingly it is located in the middle of a giant 24 km wide meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The 15 million years old crater is mostly
eroded now.