features on its face, it’s been the target of imagination, poetry, science,

and even the occasional rocket.

If you pay even the most cursory attention to it, you’ll see that it changes every

day; sometimes it’s up in the day, sometimes at night, and its shape is always changing.

What causes this behavior?

The Moon is basically a giant ball of rock 3500 kilometers across hanging in space. Its

surface is actually pretty dark, with about the same reflectivity as a chalkboard or asphalt.

However, it looks bright to us because it’s sitting in full sunlight; the Sun illuminates

it, and it reflects that light down to us here on Earth.

And because it’s a sphere, and orbiting the Earth, the way we see it lit by the Sun

changes with time. That’s what causes its phases: geometry.

The important thing to remember through all this is, because the Moon is a ball and in

space, half of it is always illuminated by the Sun!

This is true for the Earth, too, and every spherical object in space; half faces the

Sun, half faces away. We call the part facing the Sun the daylight or bright side, and the

half facing away the night or dark side.

The phase of the Moon refers to what shape the Moon appears to us; how much of it we

see illuminated from the Earth. The key to all this is this line, dividing the lit day

side from the unlit night side. We call that line the terminator.

If you’re facing the moon, with the sun behind you, you’re seeing the half of the

moon that is fully illuminated by sunlight and it looks full. If you’re off to the

side you see half of the lit side and half of the dark side and we say the moon is half

full. If the sun is on the other side of the moon, you’re look at the unlit half, and

it looks dark. Now, mind you, I haven’t moved anything except our point of view here,

so at all times the Moon is always half lit, and half dark. Remember that.

The phase of the Moon we see depends on from what direction the sunlight’s hitting it,

and the angle we see that from Earth.

The Moon orbits the Earth roughly once per month. In fact, that’s where the word “month”

comes from; “month” and “Moon” are cognates, words that have similar etymological

histories, and in most languages, including English, the two words are very similar. The

length of time we call the month is derived from the length of time it takes the Moon

to go through all its phases -- 29.5 days.

So. To describe the phases, let’s start at the beginning: New Moon.

New Moon happens when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are all more or less in a line. The Moon’s

orbit is actually tipped a bit to the Earth’s, so sometimes new Moon happens when the Moon

is “below” the Sun, or “above” it. But at some point in its orbit, at some point

in the month, it appears to be as close to the Sun as it can.

What does this look like from Earth?

The Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, so from our perspective we only see the dark

half, the unilluminated half, of the Moon. The other side, the far side, of the Moon

is lit, but we can’t see it. It makes sense then to call this the beginning of the Moon’s

cycle, hence the term “New Moon”.

Now think about this for a sec: Because the Moon is near the Sun in the sky, it travels

across the sky with the Sun. It’s up during the day! You can only see it from the part

of the Earth that’s lit, which is when it’s daytime. It’s a very common misconception

that the Moon is only up at night, but it’s up during the day literally just as often.

At New Moon, the Moon stays near the Sun, so it rises at sunrise, and sets at sunset.

This makes it extremely difficult to see; it is, after all, sitting next to the brightest

object in the sky, and only a little bit of it is lit from our perspective.

But not for long. Because the Moon is orbiting the Earth, after a couple of days it’s moved

a bit to the east. Now we’re seeing it along a slight angle, and we can see a little bit

of the illuminated half of the Moon on its side toward the Sun.

The terminator, the day/night line, appears curved around the Moon, so what we see is

a thin illuminated crescent Moon. At this point the crescent is still very thin, with

the horns of the crescent pointing away from the Sun.

Note that the Moon is still pretty close to the Sun in the sky, just a bit to the east,

rising maybe an hour or two after sunrise. But this means it’s up all day, and then

sets after the Sun does. This is the best time to see the crescent Moon, when the Sun

has already set and the sky starts to get dark. The Moon will be low over the western

horizon, and it will set soon after the Sun does.

Let’s wait a couple of days.

OK, now the Moon has moved a bit more in its orbit around the Earth, and is farther from

the Sun in the sky. We see a little more of the illuminated part, and the crescent is

wider. Since it’s getting thicker, we say this is a “waxing crescent” Moon; waxing

means growing or getting bigger. It’s also well away from the Sun now, so it’s easier

to spot, even during the day before sunset.

Seven or so days after new Moon we get to our first milestone: the Moon is now one-quarter

of the way around its orbit. It’s 90° away from the Sun in the sky, which means we’re

looking straight down on the terminator, the Moon’s day/night line. It cuts right down

the middle of the visible face of the Moon, so it’s half lit, with the sunward side

of the Moon visible and the other side dark.

Confusingly, this phase is properly named “first quarter” because the Moon is ¼

of the way through its cycle, ¼ of the way through its orbit around the Earth, even though

it looks half full. So it’s not really the half-full moon -- astronomers prefer “first

quarter,” so if you want to sound all astronomery, then you should call it that.

But time marches on. The Moon continues on its gravitational dance with Earth, swinging

around its orbit. Now more than half full, we say its shape is “gibbous”, which means

swollen or convex. Since it’s getting wider, this is actually the waxing gibbous phase

of the Moon. It rises in the late afternoon, and is up most of the night.

Our next big step comes two weeks after new Moon, when it’s moved halfway through its

orbit. It is now opposite the Sun in the sky, 180° around. The Earth is between the Moon

and Sun, so we’re looking at the fully-illuminated half of the Moon. This is the full Moon.

Because it’s opposite the Sun, it rises at sunset and sets and sunrise; it’s up

all night shining down on the Earth.

But again, wait a couple of days and things change. When the Moon is full it’s 180°

around the sky from the Sun, so as it continues to move around the Earth in a circle the distance

between it and the Sun is now starting to decrease, even as it continues on in the same

direction. As before, it keeps rising and setting later, but now it rises after sunset,

and sets after sunrise. If you get up early in the morning as the Sun is just rising in

the east, you’ll see the nearly-but-not-quite full Moon setting in the west.

Not only that, but we’re about to go through all the phases again, but in reverse order.

A few days after full Moon the lit side is shrinking. It’s in the waning, or shrinking,

gibbous phase.

Then, three weeks or so after new Moon, and a week after full, the Moon is once again

half lit, the terminator splitting the Moon’s face in two even halves. This is the “third

quarter” Moon, because the Moon is ¾ of the way through its cycle. It’s a lot like

the first quarter, but the side that was lit is now dark, and vice versa. It’s 270°

around the sky from the Sun. It rises at midnight and sets at noon.

A few days later and the Moon is a crescent again, getting thinner. It’s now a “waning

crescent.” It rises just a couple of hours before sunrise, and sets a couple of hours

before sunset.

Then, finally, we’re back where we started. One month after new Moon, the Moon has traveled

360° around the sky, and is once again as close to the Sun as it can get. It’s new

Moon, and the cycle starts up again as it has for time immemorial.

An interesting thing happens if you move your perspective from the Earth to the Moon. The

phases of the Moon we see from Earth depend on the angle of the Moon and Sun in the sky.

But on the Moon, the angles are exactly 180° reversed; at new Moon, when the

Moon is between the Earth and Sun, the Earth is opposite the Sun as seen from the Moon.

It’s full Earth!

All the other phases are opposite too, so when we see a full Moon, a Moon-dweller would

see a new Earth, and so on.

Have you ever looked at the thin crescent Moon and seen the ghostly face of the rest

of the unlit side? That’s because it’s not really unlit: the nearly full Earth is

reflecting sunlight on the Moon, lighting up the otherwise dark part.

The Earth is bigger and more reflective than the Moon, so it’s actually 50 times brighter

than a full Moon! This glow is called Earthshine, a term I quite like. Even more poetically,

it’s been called “the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms”, referring to the unlit

part surrounded by the crescent new Moon’s horns.

That’s lovely, isn’t it?

The Moon is one of the most beautiful and most gratifying objects in the sky to observe.

It’s different every day! Yet it’s also the same, because we see, more or less, the

same half of it, the same face all the time. It’s big and bright, and the features on

its surface discernible by eye (and even better with binoculars or a small telescope).

As the phases change, inexorably, day after day, the angle of sunlight hitting the surface

changes, bringing new things into our view. The motions become comforting, even familiar.

It’s a reminder that the Universe may seem strange and complicated and forbidding at

first, but over time, as you get outside and experience it, it becomes your neighborhood.

Welcome home.

Today you learned why the Moon has phases: It’s a sphere, and it orbits the Earth,

so the angle at which we see its lit side changes. It goes from new, to waxing crescent,

to half full, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, half full, waning crescent, and then

the cycle starts all over again. This also affects when it rises and sets, and what we

see on the surface.

Crash Course is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios. This episode was written

by me, Phil Plait. The script was edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant is Dr.

Michelle Thaller. It was co-directed by Nicholas Jenkins and Michael Aranda, and the graphics

team is Thought Café.