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
Jmtland,
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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