When we watch the moon during the course of a month, it looks like it is changing it's shape. What we are really seeing is sunlight reflected from the moon's surface as it moves around the Earth.

Moon Phases is written using Java. You must have a Java enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator to be able to see this applet.

(0.00 - Full Moon) - (0.00-0.25 - Waning Gibbous Moon) - (0.25 - Last Quarter) - Moon) - (0.25-0.50 - Waning Crescent Moon) (0.50 - New Moon) - (0.50-0.75 - Waxing Crescent Moon) - (0.75 - First Quarter Moon) - (0.75 - 1.00 Waxing Gibbous Moon) - (1.00 - Full Moon-again)

"Waxing" means growing and "waning" means shrinking. One appropriate definition of "gibbous" is "swollen on one side."

The sun always shines on half of the moon, but we cannot always see all of the half that is lit up. The phases are the parts of the lit half that we can see. For example, when the moon is between Earth and the sun, the sun lights the half facing away from us. Thus we see no lit part - a new moon.

It takes 29.5 days for the moon to complete a cycle of phases.

To see the current moon phase click - CLICK HERE



Waxing and Waning - If you looked at the moon from the Earth during the month, the above picture shows the different "phases" that the moon goes through. If you take a look at phases 1 through 5, the Moon steadily has more lighted area appear on it's surface as the phases progress. When this happens, the Moon is said to be WAXING. During phases 5 through 8, the amount of lighted area decreases and begins to switch sides with the darkened area from right to left. When this happens, the Moon is said to be WANING. If the lighted area is on the right side, the moon is said to be Waxing, and if the lighted area is on the left side, the moon is said to be waning. All that said, the exact opposite happens in the Southern Hemisphere.

Moon Phases - CLICK HERE