Astronomy Picture of the Day: Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain
Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain 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 moon s 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 a...
