Phases of the Moon Photo Gallery
As the Moon orbits Earth, its changing geometry with the Sun produces its characteristic phases (New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon and Last Quarter). One orbit of the Moon with respect to the Sun (synodic month) has a mean duration of 29.53 days .
The collection of images below illustrate how the Moon's appearence changes from day to day. The number of days ellapsed since the New Moon phase appears below each image. To see an enlarged view of any phase, just click on it.
Many of the images above have been used to produce a series of composites at Moon Phase Mosaics.
Phases of the Moon
The links below are tables that give the dates and times of the Moon's phases (New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon and Last Quarter) for five time zones throughout the 21st Century.