Waxing Moon
by D Hackett
Title
Waxing Moon
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
Waxing Moon by D Hackett
This beautiful Waxing Moon, as well as some beautiful pink clouds, were in my backyard the other evening as the sun was setting. I quickly grabbed my camera and starting taking pictures of the clouds, as the pink clouds do not last long. As the clouds were fading I noticed the moon and took some pictures of it. When I downloaded them I was surprised with the detail shown on this one. The sun must have been just right as you can see craters as well as the topography of the moon. On the lower back side of the moon there appears to be a �mountain� , probably the edge of a crater, that is visible as well. While it is not "perfect" I thought it was pretty cool for this amateur using a digital camera with a zoom lens.
Waxing Moon
Once you understand those four key moon phases, the phases between should be fairly easy to visualize, as the illuminated portion gradually transitions between them.
An easy way to remember and understand those "between" lunar phase names is by breaking out and defining 4 words: crescent, gibbous, WAXING, and waning. The word crescent refers to the phases where the moon is less than half illuminated. The word gibbous refers to phases where the moon is more than half illuminated. WAXING essentially means "growing" or expanding in illumination, and waning means "shrinking" or decreasing in illumination.
Thus you can simply combine the two words to create the phase name, as follows:
After the new moon, the sunlit portion is increasing, but less than half, so it is waxing crescent. After the first quarter, the sunlit portion is still increasing, but now it is more than half, so it is WAXING GIBBOUS. After the full moon (maximum illumination), the light continually decreases. So the waning gibbous phase occurs next. Following the third quarter is the waning crescent, which wanes until the light is completely gone -- a new moon.
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August 7th, 2014
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