The moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit and appears different at various times at various times of the month. These different "looks" are called phases of the moon.
THE 8 PHASES OF THE MOON
⇒ New moon
· This is when the sun and the earth are on the opposite sides of the moon or we can say that the moon is directly between the sun and the earth.
⇒ Waxing crescent moon
· This is when a small part of the moon is illuminated by the sun. The moon partially looks like a crescent and that crescent waxes (or increases) in size from the day to the next.
⇒ First quarter moon
· This is when half of the moon is seen from the earth after the waxing crescent phase.
⇒ Waxing gibbous moon
· This occurs between the first quarter moon and and the full moon wherein more than the half of the visible portion of the moon is seen. The size of its shape waxes from that day to the next.
⇒ Full moon
· This is when the moon and sun are located on the opposite sides of the earth wherein we can see the whole lighted and visible part of the moon.
⇒ Waning gibbous moon
· This is when more than half of the lighted and visible portion of the moon can be seen from the earth. This illuminated portion of the moon goes down.
⇒ Last quarter
· This is when half of the moon is seen from the earth after the waning gibbous phase.
⇒ Waning crescent
· Thus occurs between the last quarter and the new moon phase wherein a small part of the moon is visible or can be seen from the earth. It looks like a crescent and that crescent wanes in size from that day to the next.
