Waxing Gibbons

It was a lovely moon this evening. It's when the moon is just on the gibbous side of the first quarter that you can almost sense its spherical rather than circular nature - it feels 3D. And Jupiter's nearby presence is quite striking.

But it's also a reminder of why we have  a small sect amongst us, the Moon Gibbon folk. It was a mis-hearing about a "Gibbous moon" many years ago that made them think the moon was populated by a divine gibbon - a malevolent being who slays Wombles at the time of lunar eclipses and eats the moon every month.

They're an odd bunch, but on the bright side their theology is almost completely taken-up with trying to understand the origin, dietary habits and size of the Moon Gibbon. This stops them being the kind of unutterable busybodies they might be if they thought the Moon Gibbon cared about their earthly lives. Instead they just muddle along like the rest of us, with the slight difference that they get hysterical at the the time of the new moon.