It’s not often that the Moon finds itself between two planets nicely lined up and within a 12 degree field of view.  Just yesterday at around the same time, the Moon was located below Venus.  The image below is a two second exposure at ISO 800 with 53mm lens at f/5.6 on a tripod. I cropped the image to remove a street lamp and light pillars from other light sources further in the distance.

02-Jan-2017: The crescent Moon between Mars and Venus

The toughest part was actually finding a spot around my block where there was less glare from street lights or annoying power and utility lines in view.  Luckily I found a spot with two extinguished street lamps and setup in between.

A little earlier I quickly snapped the image below from the bedroom window on the 2nd floor.  The sky wasn’t dark yet, and as the camera was hand-held, 1/4sec was the lowest I could go.  Nevertheless with the rooftops in the foreground, it provides for a sense of scale and location in the sky.  The orange-red horizon from the setting sun is a nice touch.

Moon with Venus and Mars in the evening sky