Here's a ridiculous memory device for figuring out whether the Moon is waxing or waning. It actually works, perhaps because of all the convolutions. All I can say is that it was explained to me by a woman.

Is the Moon waxing (getting bigger) or waning (getting smaller)?
First, remember that the moon is a beautiful woman.
Does she look like the letter C, or the letter D? (Last night, she was a D.)
If we associate the letter D with Decreasing (waning), then C is Creasing (sic) or getting bigger (waxing).
But because she is a beautiful woman, she is apt to mislead you.
Therefore, assume that she is doing the opposite of what she claims, that is, if she's a D, she's getting bigger; if she's a C, she's getting smaller.
Therefore, last night's was a waxing Moon, which is why the chart from the link above is slightly larger than the almost perfect half circle we saw last night.
Everybody got that?

- alex 7-27-2001 4:50 pm [add a comment]