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• 3. The Moon – Our View from the Earth

How does the Moon’s appearance change over a month?

Use information from this  Moon phases calendar  to help you find out how the Moon's appearance changes over a month. Go to the  Moon connection  website to find out more.

Starter questions

• In which direction does the Moon move across our sky?
• Does a thin, crescent Moon always face the same way?
• Why do we see the Moon during the day as well as at night?
• Why do we see the Moon most clearly at night?
• Does the Moon rise and set at the same time?

Extra questions

• The full Moon is very bright. Why doesn’t it heat up the Earth like the Sun does?
• From the Earth, the Moon looks about the same size as the Sun. Is it?
• Why does the Moon appear to be bigger when it is low on the horizon?

More information

• The changing shape of the bright part of the Moon that we see is called its phase.
• When the bright part is getting bigger, the Moon is waxing. When it is getting smaller, the Moon is waning. When the Moon is more than half-lit, it is called a gibbous Moon. When the moon is less than half-lit, it is called a crescent Moon.
• The Moon rises 50 minutes later each night, and so it sometimes rises during the day.
• The Moon absorbs most of the Sun’s light. Only 11% of the light is reflected, which is why we don’t get hot under a full Moon!
• The line separating the bright part of the Moon from the unlit part is called the terminator.
• Ice crystals in the Earth’s atmosphere can refract or bend light, and so the Moon can appear “blue” or have a “lunar halo” in the Earth’s sky.
• The Moon has no atmosphere, and so there is no weather, no blue sky, and no sound.

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