Starship Asterisk*

Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain

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 2018 October. 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 past that, back to gibbous. 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.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

That's a stunningly beautiful image!

The colors are so deep, yet muted. The intensely deep dark blue color of the night sky is amazing. The gibbous Moon reflects the light from the Sun but adds a yellowish tinge to it, because of the Moon's own dark reddish color. Therefore the moonlit snow on the mountain takes on an ever so slight pale sepia tint.

The details in the picture are wonderful, too. The scale of the details on the Moon appears to be the same size as the details of the wind-blown texture of the snow, and the color and brightness of the snow and the Moon are very similar, too. (Not exactly though, because the maria of the Moon appear slightly grayish-blue, unlike the snow. And one crater on the Moon is brilliantly lit, as if the Moon was shiny.)

But the elegantly rounded shape of the Moon contrasts beautifully with the rugged shape of the mountain. And while the mountain slopes down, the little airplane appears to draw a perfectly horizontally straight white line in the sky, above the face of the Moon. Show is blowing off the mountain, adding a layer of translucent softness over the stern hardness of the exposed rocks.

So beautiful!

Ann

Surely a gibbous moon would become a decrescent moon before becoming a new moon and then a crescent, i.e. waxing rather than waning, moon.

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 6:47 am

Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain. Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand

---

That's a stunningly beautiful image! :D

The colors are so deep, yet muted. The intensely deep dark blue color of the night sky is amazing. The gibbous Moon reflects the light from the Sun but adds a yellowish tinge to it, because of the Moon's own dark reddish color. Therefore the moonlit snow on the mountain takes on an ever so slight pale sepia tint.

It's a waning gibbous Moon. Shot, I'd say, on 28 October 2018 at about 11am. So this is the daytime sky, and the snow is illuminated by the Sun, not the Moon.

(Of course, if you simply draw a line perpendicular to the lunar terminator, you can see it is pointing to a Sun that is above the horizon, not below it.)

The moon is so photogenic. I love to image it this time of year as it rises further north. A friend was out with his new dog Sadie when he noticed last week's Moon-Venus in conjunction with a photobomber. Unfortunately not all images portray the scene realistically as broadcasted on the weather. Not quite sure how Venus ended up that close to our moon.

Oh what a wonderful photo; kudos to the photograpger!

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 2:55 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 6:47 am

Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain. Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand

---

That's a stunningly beautiful image!

The colors are so deep, yet muted. The intensely deep dark blue color of the night sky is amazing. The gibbous Moon reflects the light from the Sun but adds a yellowish tinge to it, because of the Moon's own dark reddish color. Therefore the moonlit snow on the mountain takes on an ever so slight pale sepia tint.

It's a waning gibbous Moon. Shot, I'd say, on 28 October 2018 at about 11am. So this is the daytime sky, and the snow is illuminated by the Sun, not the Moon.

(Of course, if you simply draw a line perpendicular to the lunar terminator, you can see it is pointing to a Sun that is above the horizon, not below it.)

Indeed, Chris. I thought the shadows on the snow were a bit funny if the illumination was coming from the Moon.

I guess I can only say that I love the picture anyway!

Ann

William Young wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 1:03 pm Surely a gibbous moon would become a decrescent moon before becoming a new moon and then a crescent, i.e. waxing rather than waning, moon.

The caption says "That gibbous moon turned, in a few days, into a crescent moon", so, this is a waning gibbous moon in this image.