I love to see the moon in the sky. This article will highlight some of the perhaps, little-known, facts about the moon. I hope you learn from it and enjoy what you read.

Everyone knows what the moon is when they look up into the sky, but did you know that the moon takes twenty-seven days to orbit the earth? Actually, 27.3 days. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

There are four phases to the moon and they are as follows: a new moon, a first-quarter moon, a full moon, and a third-quarter moon. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

The moon gets its light from the sun. The portion we see on earth is the part that is reflected from the sunlight. The moon rises about fifty minutes later each day. Sometimes it rises in the daylight and sometimes at night. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

When we see a new moon the moon is actually in the middle of the earth and the sun. The side that we can see is getting no direct sun but is a small reflection of the sunlight on earth. When the moon becomes a small sliver in the sky we call it a waxing crescent moon. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

The first-quarter moon occurs about a week after the new moon. At this juncture, the moon is about ninety degrees away from the sun. The moon becomes half-illuminated and is about a quarter of its way around the earth. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

As the moon moves and the sunlight shines on more of it it becomes a waxing gibbous moon. In this phase a bit more than half of the moon is visible to us on earth. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

A full moon occurs when the moon is 180 degrees around the sun and forms a straight line between the earth and the sun. The face of the moon is nearly totally illuminated. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

As the moon continues its evolution it gets less sunlight. This is called the waning gibbous moon. (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html)

The moon continues its motion. When the sun shines on the other half of the moon after we have seen the waning gibbous moon it is called the third-quarter moon.

The next time we see the moon it is called the waning crescent moon and the process begins again. The earth and the moon are not normally in perfect alignment, but when they are we get what is termed an eclipse of the sun.