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Credit & Copyright: GÆran Strand
Explanation:
This is a gibbous Moon.
More Earthlings
are familiar with a full moon, when the entire face of
Luna is lit by the
Sun, and a crescent moon,
when only a sliver of the
Moon's face is lit.
When more than half of the Moon is illuminated, though,
but still short of full illumination, the
phase
is called gibbous.
Rarely seen in television and movies,
gibbous moons
are quite common in the actual night sky.
The featured
image was taken in
JÄmtland,
Sweden
near the end of last month.
That gibbous moon turned, in a few days, into a crescent moon, and then a
new moon,
then back to a crescent, and a few days ago back to gibbous.
And this same
gibbous moon is visible again tonight,
leading up to the Full
Beaver Moon that occurs Friday night.
Setting up to capture a picturesque gibbous moonscape, the photographer was
quite surprised to find an airplane,
surely well in the foreground,
appearing to fly past it.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Moon
Publications with words: Moon
See also: