• On May 22, 2012, for North America and most of the world, the moon swings closest to the planet Venus for this month. The moon will still be in the vicinity of Venus after sunset on May 23, but not as close as tonight. With Venus about to drop into the sun's glare, tonight is the final curtain call for these two brightest nighttime objects - the last time you'll see the moon and Venus appear so close in the evening sky for the rest of 2012. Enjoy!
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• Note the soft glow of earthshine on the dark side of the the waxing crescent moon tonight.

Earthshine is light reflected from Earth's day side, onto the moon's night side.
• Venus now sets about two hours after the sun at mid-northern latitudes, and only about one hour after sundown at middle latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. Use binoculars or dust off that telescope to more fully enjoy tonight's evening tableau. Venus - the personification of beauty - will display her sleek and slender crescent as seen through a telescope tonight. Look as soon as you can after sunset, before Venus' glare obtrudes on the crispness of the view. Venus appears as a crescent because she is about to pass between the Earth and sun, and so her lighted face is turned almost entirely away from our direction in space.
• Get ready for a transit of Venus! Venus will officially leave the evening sky some two weeks from today. This planet will transition from the evening to the morning sky, passing directly in between the sun and Earth for nearly seven hours on June 5/6, 2012. This much heralded event - called a transit of Venus - has been anticipated by astronomers for decades. As the transit takes place, Venus will appear as a dark dot in front of the sun from 22:09:38 (on June 5) till 4:49:35 (on June 6) Universal Time. This will be the last transit of Venus in this century. Venus will not cross

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