I dont think anyone who looks at the moon would not think it is pretty amazing. It is equally fascinating to understand the different phases that occur throughout the lunar cycle. This is a brief description of the dance between the moon, earth and sun and when the moon phases occur.
FIRSTLY, WHAT IS A LUNAR CYCLE?
The lunar cycle is the amount of time it takes for the moon to rotate around the earth and go through all of the phases once. This takes about 29.5 days and each phase is represented by the amount of the bright moon that we can see reflected onto the moon from the sun.
There are eight phases which are as follows:
NEW MOON
This is the beginning of the moon phase cycle. This dark moon is between the earth and the sun which means it is not visible to us.
WAXING CRESCENT MOON
Waxing means increasing in size. After the dark moon the light gradually starts to shine on the moon and we get to see a gentle sliver of a crescent on the right side (this is for the Northern Hemisphere, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere it would be on the left). This gentle crescent gradually increases to a larger crescent.
FIRST QUARTER MOON
The illuminated part of the moon has increased until half of the moon is visible to us. It will shine on the right side (Northern Hemisphere) in this phase.
WAXING GIBBOUS
As the bright part of the moon continues to increase then more than half will become visible and we will see the gibbous rounded bulge where it is more than half bright but not quite full yet. Waxing refers to the fact that the illuminated part of the moon is increasing as it moves towards the full moon.
FULL MOON
The whole moon will be illuminated by the sun and we get to enjoy the moon at its brightest phase.
WANING GIBBOUS MOON
After the brightness of the full moon the light on the moonwill will start to decrease, or wane. The gibbous bulge is seen on the opposite side as starts to wane, or decrease in size.
LAST QUARTER MOON
In the last quarter the bright part of the moon has decreased to a half moon and it now shines on the opposite side to the First Quarter moon.
WANING CRESCENT
The moons brightness has now shrunk to a decreasing or waning crescent as it moves towards the dark New Moon and a new cycle.
The cycles then repeat from darkness to brightness and then back to darkness again. It is fascinating isnt it! I will be exploring more about the effects of these phases on our daily lives and how we can use the moon phases to assist us.
If you are interested in finding a moon phase for a particular date (backwards or forwards) why not have a look at my calendar to discover what this is.
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