Moon Phases short

1. Moon Phases
The eight phases

2. New Moon
The side of the moon facing the Earth is not illuminated. Additionally, the moon is up through out the
day, and down through out the night. For these reasons we can not see the moon during this phase.
 The first person to walk on the Moon was the American
astronaut, Neil Armstrong, who stepped out of his space
landing craft, the Eagle, on 21 July 1969 with these famous
words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind”.

3. Waxing Crescent
During this phase, part of the Moon is beginning to show. This lunar sliver can be seen each evening
for a few minutes just after sunset. We say that the Moon is "waxing" because each night a little bit
more is visible for a little bit longer.
 All parts of the Moon are lit in turn by the Sun. As it rotates
round the Earth we see different fractions of the sunlit half,
or hemisphere, of the Moon. These are known as the
phases of the Moon, or lunar phases. The Moon changes
from a thin crescent to a full moon and back again to a
crescent in one month (actually 29 days, which is a lunar
month).

4. First Quarter
During first quarter, 1/2 of the moon is visible for the first half of the evening, and then goes down,
leaving the sky very dark.
 After the new moon appears in the sky as a tiny sliver of
light the moon waxes. It grows into a crescent, curving to
your left as you look at it and then into a half moon. This
takes a week and so the period is described as the Moon’s
first quarter.

5. Conclusion
Each month our Moon passes through eight phases. These phases are named after how much of
the moon we can see, and whether the amount visible is increasing, or decreasing each day.
WHAT CAN YOU SEE TONIGHT?