Astronomy Picture of the Day—20181121

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2018 November 21

GibbousMoon beyond Swedish Mountain

ImageCredit & Copyright: Göran Strand

Explanation:This is a gibbous Moon. More Earthlings are familiar with a full moon, when theentire face of Luna is lit by the Sun, and a crescent moon, when only a sliverof 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 theactual night sky. The featured image was taken in Jämtland, Sweden near the endof 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 togibbous. And this same gibbous moon is visible again tonight, leading up to theFull Beaver Moon that occurs Friday night. Setting up to capture a picturesquegibbous moonscape, the photographer was quite surprised to find an airplane,surely well in the foreground, appearing to fly past it.