has set; next night she is markedly further from the sun, on her eastward course, and is a larger crescent; she continues increasing her distance from the sun and the size of her disc, until, as full moon, she is rising in the east when the sun sets opposite her in the west, and setting when the sun rises. After this, she begins to wane, and, still travelling in the same direction,
An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Dante and the early astronomers (1913).djvu/36}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |
Fig. 2. The Moon at Sunset.
rises later and later at night, and sets in the day; she draws gradually nearer to the sun on the western side, till at last, as a fine crescent with the horns turned in the other direction (i.e. always away from the sun), she appears just before the rising sun in the east. Then for a short time she is lost in his rays, till she emerges as a new moon on the sunset side again.
The moon completes a revolution among the stars in 27 days, 8 hours; but it takes her a little longer to come up with the sun again, since he has meanwhile been moving in the same direction along his yearly