It’s not a phase, Mom! ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

One thing I love about the nighttime is getting to see the different phases of the Moon in different times of its cycle. The Moon cycle consists of 8 phases as you can see in the picture below, and lasts 29.5 days, which is around one month! In this period, we see the Moon go from new moon (this is when the Moon is dark to us) as it waxes/increases up to full moon (a beautiful, completely round moon!), and then as the full moon wanes/decreases down to darkness. One side of the moon is always facing the Sun because sunlight hits Earth and Moon from the same direction. During different positions of the Moon’s orbit, we will see a different shape of light/dark on the moon. Although we see different phases, we always see the same face of the moon! This is because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth and its rotation around its axis take around the same time! We call this characteristic “synchronous rotation”, and it happens because of the Earth’s gravity affecting the moon.

A helpful visual of the moon phases! (Image credit: Karl Tate/Space.com)

A different perspective: if you were on the side of the moon facing Earth, you would see “phases” of the Earth that are the opposite of what Earth is seeing the Moon as! So if the Moon was in new moon phase, the view of the Earth from the Moon would be a “full Earth!”

One thing I learned from our textbook (“The Cosmic Perspective” ) that I didn’t realize before was that the phase of the Moon also determines what time of the day we get to see the moon. For example, a full moon rises at sunset and a first-quarter moon rises around noon. That also determines when it sets.

A beautiful first quarter moon in midday! (Image credit: stephaniesbecker@gmail.com)

No matter what, our Moon will always be there with us. Even when you don’t see her! (did you ever wonder why the Moon’s following you? it’s because the Moon is a significant distance away from us, and we can relate this to our knowledge on angular distance!) ☾ So, if you’ve read all the way down here, I would love to know what your favorite moon phase is! Mine would definitely be the full moon, because it makes the night so bright!! ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆