Luna Giallo

Note from the Photographer

The dark curved edge visible along the left side of the moon in this photograph is called the terminator, the dividing line between lunar day and lunar night. As the moon orbits Earth, this line slowly sweeps across its surface, marking where the sun is either rising or setting from the moon's perspective. This particular capture shows the moon in its waning gibbous phase, meaning it is more than half illuminated but past full, with the lit portion shrinking a little more each night as it heads toward the next quarter. The terminator line is actually the best place to study the moon's surface in real detail. Craters and mountains cast long dramatic shadows here that get completely washed out during a full moon, when the sun hits the surface too directly to reveal any texture at all. What looks like a subtle shadow at the edge of this frame is actually an active twilight zone on another world, quietly moving forward one night at a time.