First Quarter

This phase comes after the Waxing Crescent and the moon has an illumination percentage of 50%. The moon is one quarter of the way through its orbit around planet earth. Precisely half the moon will be illuminated and half of it will be dark. On this phase the moon is high overhead during sunset and it can be seen until mid-night when it sets in the west side. The First Quarter phase is a one-day event and in the following days we welcome a Waxing Gibbous, when the moon becomes more illuminated each day until the Full Moon.

Full Moon

During a Full Moon the moon is fully illuminated as seen from Earth and is set the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. The Moon will be visible throughout the night sky. It rises at sunset in the east and sets with the beginning of sunrise the next morning. The point at which a Full Moon occurs can be measured down to a fraction of a second. The time it takes between each full moon is called Synodic month and is 29.530587981 days long.

Last Quarter

The Last Quarter Moon, this phase is present for nearly 3 weeks after the New Moon when the Moon has orbited three quarter of the way around earth. If you live in the northern hemisphere of Earth you can see that the Moon‘s left side is illuminated and the right side will be dark. For those of you who are clicking this page in the southern hemisphere it will be the opposite. On the day of the Third Quarter phase the Moon rises around midnight on the eastern horizon and sets in the west around noon of the next day. In the days after the Third Quarter Phase the Moon’s illumination will decrees continuously each day until the New Moon begins.

New Moon

During this phase the moon is very close to the sun, so is hard to be seen by the naked eye. The night sky on this lunar phase is usually darker and other astral objects can be more visible. The illumination of this phase is almost if not 0%.