Why does phases of the moon change

This name comes from the fact that the Moon is now one-quarter of the way through the lunar month. From Earth, we are now looking at the sunlit side of the Moon from off to the side. The Moon continues to wax. Once more than half of the disc is illuminated, it has a shape we call gibbous.

The gibbous moon appears to grow fatter each night until we see the full sunlit face of the Moon. We call this phase the full moon.

It rises almost exactly as the Sun sets and sets just as the Sun rises the next day. The Moon has now completed one half of the lunar month. During the second half of the lunar month, the Moon grows thinner each night. We call this waning. Its shape is still gibbous at this point, but grows a little thinner each night. As it reaches the three-quarter point in its month, the Moon once again shows us one side of its disc illuminated and the other side in darkness.

However, the side that we saw dark at the first quarter phase is now the lit side. As it completes its journey and approaches new moon again, the Moon is a waning crescent. Want another description of why the Moon has phases?

You can demonstrate the phases of the Moon for yourself by using a lamp and a baseball. Place the lamp with its shade removed in one end of a darkened room. There are few different reasons why notice different phases of the Moon. Remember that the moon revolves around the Earth. As the moon goes around the Earth, half of the moon is always illuminated by the Sun. Meanwhile, the other half of the moon is always in darkness. Sometimes we see the parts being illuminated, and sometimes we do not.

The moon looks bright because we see sunlight reflecting off of it. Depending on the position, we can only see fractions of the illuminated surface. For instance, when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, the side of the moon facing Earth is not illuminated by the Sun. Therefore, to us humans on Earth, the moon is dark, and we call this a New Moon. As the Moon then moves away from the Sun, we begin to see more of the surface illuminated.

Some nights, the Moon might look like a narrow crescent. Other nights, the Moon might look like a bright circle. And on other nights, you might not be able to see the Moon at all. Why does this happen? However, our view of the Moon does change. The Moon does not produce its own light. There is only one source of light in our solar system, and that is the Sun.

Without the Sun, our Moon would be completely dark. The other side of the Moon is dark.