Skygazers were treated to a beautiful celestial show as Venus appeared next to a glowing crescent moon.

Just two days past its new phase, the slender moon was around 9% illuminated, with its surrounding glow caused by sunlight reflected by Earth – a phenomenon known as earthshine.

While the two appeared close to each other, they are much further apart in space.

The moon is around 226,000 miles (364,000km) from Earth, while the distance between Venus and our planet is a whopping 126 million miles (203 million km).

Crescent moon and Venus.Venus appeared to be close to the crescent moon in the night sky (Andy Kenyon)

On hand to capture the celestial meeting was amateur astronomer David Blanchflower, who said Venus will also be seen next to the moon on Friday evening.

Meanwhile musician Dave Palmley from Scotland, who is currently writing a book about violin tuition for beginners, shared a photo of the scene on Holy Isle, one of the islands of Arran, on Twitter.

Some pictures show the moon having a rusty colour, which is down to the way light scatters as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere.

As these particles tend to scatter blue light more than they do red light, the red photons (parts of light that have longer wavelengths), pass through, giving objects in the sky – like the crescent moon – a reddish tint.