Phase Name
New Moon
Waxing Crescent Moon
First Quarter Moon  ( Half Moon )
Waxing Gibbous Moon
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous Moon
Last Quarter Moon  ( Half Moon )
Waning Crescent Moon
New Moon (again)
Each increment of the animated moon on the right is equivalent to one day's change. Waxing means growing.   Waning means diminishing.   Gibbous means more than half full.

What the Moon is Like Now:






Interesting Stuff about the Moon

The Moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles, and is about one-fourth the size of the Earth.

The Moon revolves around the Earth in a slightly elliptical orbit, inclined by an angle of 5 degrees, 8 minutes, 43.4 seconds to the plane in which the Earth revolves around the sun.

Its distance from the Earth ranges between 221,0000 miles (356,000 km) and 253,000 miles (407,000 km) in the course of a month. The average distance is 238,900 miles (384,400 km).

The period in which the Moon completes an orbit around the Earth and returns to the same position in the sky (the sidereal month) is 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.6 seconds.

Because the Earth is moving in its orbit around the sun in the same direction as the Moon, the time required for the Moon to return to the same phase (the synodic month) is longer... 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds. This is the period between, for example, two full moons.

The Moon rotates about its axis in one sidereal month, so that we always see just one side of the Moon.

When the Moon casts its shadow on the Earth we have a Solar Eclipse.  When the Earth casts its shadow on the Moon we have a Lunar Eclipse.