This is a moment last night, just after sundown: The moon is a gleaming sliver rising through a tangerine sky; the blue waters of Great Cove and Eggemoggin Reach are fading into the night’s blackness. The temperature is hovering around freezing, but it doesn’t feel cold; the air smells of salt and dried leaves.
In lunar-speak, the moon was starting its “waxing crescent” phase with less than one percent of its disc surface reflecting the sinking sun’s light. The moon “waxes” when it is in a period of increasing illumination and it “wanes” when illumination is decreasing. It is “full” when 100 percent of its facing surface is illuminated.
November’s full moon, the “Beaver Moon,” will rise here on November 19 and be subject to a partial lunar eclipse, which we should see here, weather permitting. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 6, 2021;.)