PHASES OF MOON

THE MOON PHASES

NEW MOON:

When the moon is positioned between the earth and sun. The entire illuminated portion of the moon is on the back side of the moon, so the half side of the moon that is facing the earth is not getting the light and hence moon is not visible.

WAXING CRESCENT:

After the new moon, the sunlit portion is increasing, but less than half. Since the shape is increasing, so its waxing…and since its 1/4^th of the visible moon, so it is crescent shape. Hence it is Waxing Crescent.

HALF MOON:

After waxing crescent, comes the Waxing Half-moon. It is also called  first quarter moon, we are seeing exactly half of the moon illuminated and half in shadow.

WAXING GIBBOUS: 

After the first quarter, the sunlit portion is still increasing, but now it is more than half. Since the shape is increasing, so its waxing, and since its 3/4th of the visible moon, so it is Gibbous shape. Hence it is Waxing Gibbous. Then comes Full moon.

FULL MOON:

The Sun, Earth, Moon are in approximate alignment, so the entire sunlit part of the moon is facing us. The shadowed portion is entirely hidden from view. So we see the full moon.

 

WANING GIBBOUS: 

After the Full Moon, the sunlit portion starts decreasing, and now it is less than Full. Since the shape is decreasing, so its waning, and since its 3/4^th of the visible moon, so it is Gibbous shape. Hence it is Waning Gibbous.

HALF MOON:

In the first quarter and third quarter moons, we are seeing exactly half of the moon illuminated and half in shadow.

WANING CRESCENT:  

After the Half moon, the light continually decreases. Since 1/4^th of the moon is lit, so its crescent and since its reducing so its waning. So the shape is waning crescent. Then comes New moon.

After crescent moon, the moon still wanes until the light is completely gone — a new moon.

And the cycle repeat itself.