Star next to the moon
A star next to the moon is usually a planet, most often Venus or Jupiter, which travel the same path across the sky as the moon. Zulu tradition, as noted in an encyclopedia of 1903, read a bright star near the moon as an omen of war.
What it may mean
The bright point sitting beside the crescent looks like a companion, almost touching it. In fact it is generally a planet hundreds of millions of miles beyond the moon, lined up only from your spot on Earth. Tomorrow night the moon will have moved on, and the pair will be gone. Earlier observers read these pairings with care, as omens of war in Zulu lore and of fire in Japan. Viewed today, the sight is a lesson in how closeness can depend on the angle of view. Two people can seem a pair at work or in a family photo and lead very separate lives; others who never appear side by side are close in every way that counts.
Depending on how you saw it
Venus beside the crescent at dusk
The crescent and Venus often meet in the west at dusk, the brightest pair in the sky, and people stop on sidewalks to point. Which pairing in your days do you look forward to, even when it lasts only a moment?
Two bright points near the moon
Japanese lore saw two stars close together near the moon as a sign of fire. Sometimes the moon does pass two planets at once. When two warnings arrive together, do you take them more seriously than one?
The next night, the pair has split
The moon moves about its own width across the stars every hour, so by the next night it sits far from yesterday's companion. Which closeness in your life lasted only a short while and was worth it anyway?
Why it happens in nature
The moon and the planets travel along nearly the same band of sky, so the moon regularly passes close to Venus, Jupiter, Mars or Saturn, and to bright stars along that path. The closeness is only a line-of-sight effect; the planet is far beyond the moon. Because the moon shifts eastward about its own width each hour, a pairing lasts a night or two.
What folk beliefs say
Zulu (southern Africa)
The Zulus believe that a bright star near the moon is an omen of war, a 1903 collection says.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 1000. View the page
Shangalla
The Shangalla believe that when a star passes near the horns of the moon, it is the sign of an enemy approaching.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 966. View the page
Japan
Two stars close together near the moon are a sign of fire, according to Japanese belief recorded in 1903.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 999. View the page
To reflect on
Which two people look paired from where you stand, though they may be worlds apart?