A waning gibbous moon sails over the eastern horizon in the hours between sunset and midnight.
The moon is past full now. Once again, it appears less than full but more than half lighted.
What can I say about a waning gibbous moon? Only that it can surprise you if you happen to be out late in the evening. It rises eerily some hours after sunset, glowing red like a full moon when it’s near the horizon. Sometimes it looks like a misshapen clone of a full moon.
Because it comes up late at night, the waning gibbous moon prompts people to start asking, “Where is the moon? I looked for it last night and couldn’t find it.”
The waning gibbous moon also initiates a rash of questions about seeing the moon during the day. If it rises late at night, you know the waning gibbous moon must set after sunrise.
In fact, in the few days after full moon, you’ll often see the waning gibbous moon in the west in early morning, floating against the pale blue sky.
Understanding Moon Phases
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous
Last Quarter
Waning Crescent
New Moon
this website is the best moon website ever all the other websites I went on give me crapy info thanks u rock
:)
this site is awesome! ^^
i was curious to see the moon so close to the horizon and big and orange like. never saw it in this way. i was driving the freeway and was amazed. i thought it was a sign of some sort. anyways i clicked on your website and learned about it being called waning gibeous moon. thank for the imformation.
I WAS BORN ON OCT. 2, 1947. IT WAS A GIBBOUS MOON.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN SEE A PICTURE OF IT?
THANKS
Um, interesting. Um, I’m just taking a wild guess here but you may be able to find a picture of the gibbous on Yahoo Images. That is just a guess. Do with that what you will…
:/
yeah there is this one we used at school called tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html
well all you have to do is go to Google or yahoo etc. and then type in the Gibbous Moon phase and then click on the image box you could maybe even take a screen shot or save the image to remember the type of moon phase that was happening while you were born!
WOW! amazing
Yup!
I would like to know the effect on people and anyone there mood during the different phases
I have noticed over the past 25 years or so that my wife and I have a tendency to be tired and irritable during the waxing gibbous moon (the WGM, as we call it), and are prone to argue. Sometimes its effect is mild, but at others it is quite intense. The toughest time is 3-5 days before full, and always, the day of the full moon, my condition returns to normal.
I discovered this phenomenon quite by accident, and kept quiet for quite awhile before mentioning it to my wife. At first she thought I was a nut, after a few months she began to concur.
Over the years, I’ve explained my theory to a few people outside my family…some looked at me like I had two heads, but some seemed interested and after paying attention to their own emotions and feelings, have come to accept it as well.
I have searched the internet for any mention or study of this, but have found none.
When the moon is full it brings with it positive ions, but these aren’t ‘positive’ as we would know them. It’s the feeling before a storm. Negative ions are what you experience after the storm or near running water.
Both my and my partner feel sleepless and irritable when a full moon is about.
After seeing the waning gibbous moon i had updated my status into: ‘i do not know the link between miss moon and my heart but both of them are burning red tonight, it may be coz she is crying as she is not full anymore and as for me i realise am a fool always…..’
and i was looking for an article to support my status which i foiund now.
Thanks n cheers||
[...] night is partly cloudy with a low of 68 so it should be a comfortable evening with fair seeing. The waning gibbous moon will be high in the sky. The planet Jupiter will also shining brightly. Who knows what else we [...]
OMG, I saw this last night 10/26/10 at 9:30 PM here in TX and what an Amazing sight, so beautiful and amazing.
Our son marvels at the different stages of the Moon. He especially enjoys it when both the Sun & Moon are visable together … it took some time to explain that one to a three year old ;-)
Bev, I share your pain ;-)
My daughter is three next month and, even though I thought I knew a bit about the night sky, I had to find this site to answer her questions!
A.
What causes a concave moon? An eclipse is a converse shadow? It appears as if the sun is in the north and we are seeing the moon from the side instead of having the sun to our backs.
Also I notice that the shape of the is farther to the north than in Oregon where I grew up
Hi Dean, not sure, but I think you may be talking about a waxing crescent moon: http://earthsky.org/tonightpost/moon-phases/waxing-crescent
There are local differences in the moon’s appearance from one part of Earth to the next … but there are also seasonal differences … so those local changes can be hard to sort out.
Clear skies!
ES
Let your imagination go for a minute and picture a bunch of obsticles hittin a planet in a way that they hit one side of the planet like on the left side could they cause the planet to rotate on its axis.
If those objects were coming or came out of our orbit which side of earth would they come out from? Does our moon rockets go into orbit toward the right and then leave our planet from our left side?
Dean, not sure it’s helpful to talk about left and right.
I think you’re asking about the Earth’s orbit around the sun. The last quarter moon can be a guide to understanding it on a gut level. Here’s more: http://earthsky.org/tonightpost/moon-phases/last-quarter
- ES
What IS a gibbous moon?
It’s a moon that appears more than half lighted but less than full.
Thanks for contributing this post with such a nice illustration! It enriched my moon vocabulary.
I saw the oddest thing last night (Dec. 24, 2010, around 10pm). The moon was waning after the full moon of the solstice and instead of the waning coming from the left area it was coming directly from the top of the moon; sort of looked like a fat football. It was also huge and golden and about 30 degrees from the horizon in central western Fl. east of Tampa. I took a picture of it but have found no reference as to why it looked like that.
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