The Phases of The Moon!

By: Makayla Clark

You’re about to read about the phases of the moon! You know… the moon? The yellowish thing that lights up the sky at night? Sometimes it’s a full circle and sometimes it looks like a crescent roll! Keep reading to find out about EACH phase!

This is the first phase of the moon! Also known as the new moon. This is when you see no moon in the night sky… it is invisible to us!

The new moon is right in between the sun and the earth. The part of the moon that is facing the sun is lit up, but the part of the moon that is facing us is dark!

This is the waxing crescent stage. The moon is on its way to its fullness! You will see the right side of the moon start to light up a little bit! It looks like a banana!

Ah, the first quarter! The right side is starting to take over! This is when the right HALF of the moon is lit up.

This is the waxing gibbous, basically the third stage of reaching a full moon. About 3/4 of the moon is lit up on the right side!

THIS IS THE FULL MOON! The moons entire disc is lighting up because the earth is in between the sun and the moon!

When the sun, earth, and moon are in this order… we see a fully lit up moon, but the other side is dark.

The next stage after the full moon is called the waning gibbous. The moon is starting to shrink and go back to its first stage. About 3/4 of the left side of the moon is lit up.

The last quarter… the left HALF of the moon is lit up and the right half is dark.

This is the waning crescent! As you can see, it’s almost back to being a new moon. A little part of the left side of the moon is lit up.

Now you are back to a new moon and the cycle starts all over again!

Glossary

Waxing-

Waxing is when the moon is going through it’s growing stages. For instance the waxing crescent and the waxing gibbous. It’s on its way to being a full moon.

Waning-

Waning is when the moon is shrinking back down to the new moon. That is why we have the waning gibbous and the waning crescent!

Disc-

The lunar disc is the shape of the moon that is fully illuminated and what we can see.