Gibbous Moon Over Belmont

Friday was the harvest moon, and Saturday, Belmont photographer Denny Lawhern framed this amazing moon through the branches of a tree in his front yard. Denny posted it on Facebook, and one of his FB followers commented that it was a "waining gibbous moon."

According to universetoday.com, a gibbous moon is one of the phases of the moon, when the size of the illuminated portion is greater than half but not a full moon.

The period between a first quarter moon and a full moon is known as a waxing gibbous moon, because the illuminated region of the moon is increasing from day to day. After it becomes a full moon, but hasn’t reached the last quarter, the moon is called a waning gibbous moon.

So there's your science lesson for the day.  Thanks Denny!

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/20324/gibbous-moon/#ixzz2fdJXVcca