What is this ghostly image? It’s a new moon. Its lighted half is facing entirely away from Earth.
The image above is imaginary. It’s as if you flew in a spaceship to a place where you could see the night side of the moon. When the moon is new, its night face is facing us on Earth … but we can’t see the moon at this time.
We cannot see the new moon from Earth, except during the stirring moments of a solar eclipse. Then the moon passes in front of the sun, and the night portion of the moon becomes visible to us, surrounded by the sun’s fiery corona.
Once each month, the moon comes all the way around in its orbit so that it is more or less between us and the sun. If it were directly between, a solar eclipse would take place. But that doesn’t happen every month. Instead, in most months, the moon passes above or below the sun as seen from our earthly vantage point.
On the day of new moon, the moon rises when the sun rises. It sets when the sun sets. It crosses the sky with the sun during the day.
That’s why we can’t see the new moon in the sky. It is too close to the sun’s glare to be visible. Plus its lighted hemisphere is facing away from us.
Each new lunar cycle is measured beginning at each new moon. Astronomers call one lunar cycle a lunation.
As the moon orbits Earth, it changes phase in an orderly way. Follow these links to understand the various phases of the moon.
Understanding Moon Phases
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous
Last Quarter
Waning Crescent
New Moon
this website is awesome! I had big school project on phases of the moon and it has helped me big time and made it easy this was the only website i used,
thanks
yes i totally agree Mackenzie! this website is legit!
awesome work guys
keep doing what you doo!
omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is the coolest site i have ever seen!!!!! way to go space people!!!! isnt it hard to figure out the ways of the moon?????????
:) :) :) <3 moon phases <3 :) :) :)
space people…?
This is one of the coolest sites I have seen in a long time. I could study and read this stuff for hours.
GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!
this so sooo cool! we are learning about moon phases in science!
Thanks for all the help guys and hi mckenzie ahhahah wow to think we are sitting next to achother i mean we bpoth agree how cool this site is Thanks :) <3
This website is great! Im learning about space and eclipses and this is really helping out alot to understand alot more teachers DO help but sometimes it helps more with a visual i mean comeon does anyone agree? As students we need to learn how and what to do. We need to learn and know how to do something. I give props to whoever made this website very very very nice job :)
my best freind is bailey and she is one of the smartest people i know and she even learned something newq just from reading this web site you guys are very helpfull
:) :):) moon phases :) :) :)
ok ok ok this site is pretty cool but sdoenst help me as much i mean come on they probably havent read thhis site yet prob didnt even really know anything and are just kids trtying to get out of a project i mean come on do u believe this? :(
i so agree with you!!!!!!!!im a visual learner and my te3acher says tht the txt book has pictures but this site is way better than tht stinky old txt book u agree?????????
this is not true we do read the facts and like this site we help eachother out extremely we have learned alot not as much but alittle bit so thank you – the girls :)
yes i tottally agree we cant be stuck up in a coldddd classroom just to read a textbook i mean really we need visuals every once in awhile does any1 agree?
i have eogs coming up and this website is helping so thank you soo much but whoevers makign this can they put more information on this? :)
but we dont even have a science EOG but we do have to learn about it
-floridagirl3
we have EOG’s next week and even though we dont have one for science, we still have to learn about moon phases and this site is awesome for that!!! thank you!!!
-floridagirl3
this is really intresting(: scientists are really smart, wow!
Thanks to the Mars hoax I discovered this web site and boy am I glad I did! Love the explanations about the constellations, the locations of the planets and, well, this moon article is the best I have ever seen! My kids love looking at the night sky. We’ll be checking this site out regularly.
Thanks so much!
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Soooo beautiful. The Moon. Ohhhh Yeahhhh.
this is kool…im going to write a poem now based on the new moon
Please give me the position of the New Moon for April 2011. Dose it set before or after the Sun? How close to the Sunset? Is it North,South, East or West of The Sun? Thank you Very much
Peter,
The new moon for April 2011 falls April 3 at 14:32 Universal Time. At this time, the new moon passes about 4 degrees north of the sun, though the exact amount depends on where you live on the surface of the globe. The moon’s setting time (relative to the sun) also depends on where you live. Check out the links at our almanac page at http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/sunrisesunset-moonrisemoonset-almanacs.
Bruce
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the day is good because of the new moon the new moon will refer to 27 and 1/7 days so this day is the best :) (y) :P