The sun is already below the horizon and the moon is following close behind...

Exposure: 1/4 second
ISO: 1600
no tripod

hehe, it's great when that happens, isnt it?
nice shot

looks way overly compressed, almost looks like one of those images shot from a cell phone.

Definitly not shot with a cell phone - EOS 350D

As for the picture quality - yes there is certainly a loss due to compression, but the high ISO (1600) combined with relatively long exposre (1/4 second) with no tripod at hand also contributed...

With a tripod, lower ISO and longer exposure I'm sure the quality could be better

hmmmmm ya I see the compression up top....one way to sometimes counter the 'checking effect' is to drop the curves down some. You handheld at 1/4 second?!?!??

Yep, but I had to take a total of 5 photos to get one that was without motion-blur