Moon Phases

 

WAXING MOON Let's start with a Waxing Crescent Moon, the kind that looks like a Man in a Moon drawing or a cute Christmas tree ornament with a smiling face and a long white beard. When the Moon is a Waxing Crescent; the dark side is to your left, more or less, and the bright Crescent is to your right. (Sometimes the Moon is tipped a little, so it may not be exactly right or left, but you will know what i mean if you go outside and look at it.)                       The Waxing Crescent Moon                       rises after sunrise and sets after sunset --                       it is only seen in the night sky for a short time after the sun goes down. Every night the Moon rises in the East a little later and the thickness of the Waxing Crescent gets fatter, until the shape of the Moon is half a circle. This is the First Quarter, also called by some people the Waxing Half Moon. It is dark on the left and bright on the right                       The Waxing First Quarter Moon                       rises about at noon                       and sets about at midnight. After that, the Moon starts to look like it is pregnant -- it is perfectly round on the right side, but bulged out past half-way on the left. This is the Waxing Gibbous Moon.                       The Waxing Gibbous Moon                       rises in the middle of the afternoon                       and sets before well before sunrise. FULL MOON It takes about 14 days of growing bigger for the moon to grow or wax completely full -- that night you will see the Full Moon rise as a perfect circular disk.                       The Full Moon                       rises almost exactly at sunset                       and sets almost exactly at the next sunrise. WANING MOON After its 14 days of waxing, culminating with the Full Moon, the entire process is reversed and the Moon decreases in apparent size. It slowly begins to go dark on the right side, while the left side stays the same disk-shape as it had when it was Full. This is the Waning Gibbous Moon -- it looks perfectly round on the left side, but bulged out past half-way on the right.                       The Waning Gibbous Moon                       rises in the early evening                       and sets some time after sunrise. Every night the Moon rises in the East a little later and the thickness of the Waning Gibbous gets thinner, until the shape of the Moon is half a circle. This is the Last Quarter, also called by some people the Third Quarter or Waning Half Moon. It is dark on the right and bright on the left.                       The Waning Last Quarter Moon                       rises about at midnight                       and sets about at noon. As the shape continues to shrink, night by night, the Moon becomes a Waning Crescent; the dark side is to your right, more or less, and the bright Crescent is to your left.                       The Waning Crescent Moon                       rises between midnight and dawn,                       but fades out when the Sun comes up. NEW MOON Finally, growing smaller still, the moon has waned completely and it vanishes. This is called the Dark of the Moon or New Moon -- and on the night of the New Moon you will see no Moon at all, no matter how long you stay up and watch, because...                       The New Moon (Dark Moon)                       rises at sunrise                       and sets at sunset. WAXING MOON AGAIN About 3 days after the true Dark of the Moon you will see a tiny sliver of a Moon like a fingernail paring appear in the sky at sunset near where the Sun has gone down. Some people call this the First Crescent. Others call it the Siva Moon, because the Hindu god Siva is shown with a thin crescent moon in his hair.                       The First Crescent                       rises a little bit after sunrise                       and sets a little bit after sunset. After that, the Moon grows (or waxes) to a nice, "Man in the Moon" type Crescent Moon. And that's where we started out, with the Waxing Crescent Moon. HOW YOU CAN TELL WHAT PHASE THE MOON IS IN To tell whether the Moon is waxing or waning is fairly simple. Basically, all you have to do is go outside at sundown and take a look -- if you don't see the moon then, you will have to go outside later at night and check again, or check duting the day: If the Moon is already up in the sky in the evening, when the Sun goes down, then the Moon is waxing. Every night it will rise a little later in the day and look a little fuller. At Full Moon it will rise almost exactly when the Sun sets. If the Moon is not already up in the sky when night falls, but instead rises long after sunset, or if you see it faintly during the day, then the Moon is waning. Every day it will rise a little later and look a little thinner. At New Moon it will rise almost exactly when the Sun does, but you won't be able to see it at all. MOON PHASES CALENDAR

If you don;t want to figure the moon phases out for yourself from direct observation of nature, here is a handy chart. The following table gives the date and time (Greenwich Mean Time) of all phases of the Moon from 2001 to 2010. For the year 2000, the length of the mean synodic month (New Moon to New Moon) is 29.53059 days. It also indicates whether or not an eclipse of the Sun or Moon occurred on the date in question and gives the eclipse type. Note that an eclipse of the Sun can occur only at New Moon, while an eclipse of the Moon can occur only at Full Moon. In any calendar year there are between 2 to 5 eclipses of each kind (solar and lunar, including penumbral). However, there cannot be any more than 7 eclipses in any one year (4 solar and 3 lunar, or 5 solar and 2 lunar).

t - Total (Umbral)
p - Partial (Umbral)
n - Penumbral
T - Total
A - Annular
H - Hybrid (Annular/Total)
P - Partial