Usually, the moon passes above or below the sun from our vantage point, but occasionally it passes right in front of the sun, and we get a solar eclipse. Now, the moon is between Earth and the sun. Waning crescent: Less than half of the moon's face appears to be getting sunlight, and the amount is decreasing.įinally, the moon is back to its new moon starting position. The sun's light is now shining on the other half of the visible face of the moon. Last quarter: The moon has moved another quarter of the way around Earth, to the third quarter position. Waning gibbous: More than half of the moon's face appears to be getting sunlight, but the amount is decreasing. When they do, we have a lunar eclipse as Earth's shadow crosses the moon's face. The sun, Earth and the moon are aligned, but because the moon’s orbit is not exactly in the same plane as Earth’s orbit around the sun, they rarely form a perfect line. More than half of the moon's face appears to be getting sunlight.įull moon : The moon is 180 degrees away from the sun and is as close as it can be to being fully illuminated by the sun from our perspective. Waxing gibbous: The area of illumination continues to increase. We call it 'first quarter' because the moon has traveled about a quarter of the way around Earth since the new moon.

Waxing crescent: As the moon moves around Earth, the side we can see gradually becomes more illuminated by direct sunlight.įirst quarter: The moon is 90 degrees away from the sun in the sky and is half-illuminated from our point of view. New moon: The moon is between Earth and the sun, and the side of the moon facing toward us receives no direct sunlight it is lit only by dim sunlight reflected from Earth. (Image credit: NASA)Īs the moon orbits Earth, it reflects sunlight and appears to cycle through eight distinct phases: The moon's phases leading up to and away from the first quarter moon.

Solar walk on nw 8th street