A couple of nights ago, Claire was talking or texting to one of her brothers and he asked if she’d seen the full moon — we didn’t see it here because of the cloud cover. But last night we had a good view of the moon when it came up by looking out our kitchen window. The moon still looked “full” but of course it wasn’t.
Claire asked if the moon was waxing or waning — a question that periodically comes up in our house. It’s one of those questions a lot of people can’t keep straight…. kind of like do you feed a cold and starve a fever, or do you feed a fever and starve a cold?
Anyhow, as a public service — here’s how to tell the difference between waxing and waning:
A waxing moon is a moon that gets more sunlight on it as the days go by — it’s after we experience a new moon up to a full moon. A waning moon is after the full moon and will remain waning until the next new moon.
A quick way to tell if a moon is in the waxing or waning phase is to look at the moon and see which side the shadow is on. If the shadow is on the right, like it is right now, the moon is in a waning phase. If the shadow is on the left, then the moon is in the waxing phase and heading towards a full moon. If you’re into memory “crutches,” think of the rhyme bright and right — if the moon is bright on the right, it is waxing.
As an added bonus for checking in today, you may have heard the term gibbous applied to the moon. If you hear or read about a gibbous moon waxing or waning, it means that the observable illuminated part of the moon is greater than a semicircle and less than a circle.
It’s supposed to be clear here tonight, so maybe we can go out and see the gibbous waning moon….
— 30 —