How many faces of the moon are there?

Answer 1

Providing there is a full moon on the 1st Jan and a lunar month as 29.53 days, there would be a total of 13 full moons throughout the year with the last being 20th/21st December, depending on leap year. The number of total phases (from new moon to new moon, or indeed full moon to full moon) is just over 12 in every year

Answer 2

Dear Wiki Questioner,

The moon has 8 distinct phases. In order of one complete cycle they are:

1) New Moon, this occurs when the moon is between the earth and the sun, and no light can reflect off of the moon and onto us. As a result, it is difficult to see the moon when it is in this phase!

2) Waxing Crescent, This occurs when the Moon is in position to just reflect a little bit of sunlight (so we can only see a little sliver!). The word "Waxing" simply means "getting bigger," because the moon is changing from completely dark to more and more bright.

3) 1/4 Moon, This occurs when half of the side of the moon that we can see reflects light from the sun to the earth.

4) Waxing Gibbous, You already know what "waxing" means (see part 2!). "Gibbous" simply means that more than half of the side of the moon that we see from earth is light up.

5) Full Moon, As the name indicates, this happens when we see the entire moon light by the sun's light!

6) Waning Gibbous, "Waning" is the opposite of "Waxing" and indicates that the moon is changing from full back to new (instead of the other way around). Gibbous, again, means that more than half (but not all) of the side of the moon that we see is reflecting the sun's light to earth.

7) 3/4 Moon, Here again we see only half of the earth-facing side illuminated by the sun, but it is Waning (unlike the 1/4 moon).

8) Waning Crescent, Here we are back to a point where only a small part of the moon (less than half) can reflect sunlight to earth.

...And then we return to (1) The New Moon to complete our Lunar Cycle!!!

If you are curious, the phases of the moon are caused by the relative geometry of the sun, earth and moon. Draw out a sketch of this geometry and you should be able to think of a configuration which allows earth to view each of the phases!!!

If you want to read more about this subject you can visit the following web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase

Answer 3

full (entirely illuminated), new ( entirely dark), Waning gibbous, Waxing gibbous,

Waning crescent, Waxing crescent, first quarter, last quarter

Waning- light getting smaller

Waxing- light getting bigger

crescent- less than 50% illuminated

gibbous- more than 50% illuminated

by the way its spelled phases not faces

Answer 4

6 phases:

1. new

2. waxing crescent

3.waxing gibbous

4. full

5. waning gibbous

6.waning crescent

The moon repeats the cycle roughly every month (30 days).

Answer 5

If the first Full Moon of the year arrives by January 10th, then there's enough time

left in the year for twelve more of them, for a total of 13 that year. If the first one

is after January 10th, then there will only be 12 that year.

Using:

Calendar year: 365 days

Cycle of phases: 29.53 days

Answer 6

There are 8 phases of the moon, they are: New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning Crescent ... i'm pretty sure 4...

Answer 7

The moon looks slightly different every night as it goes through its orbit. Theoretically each shape is a "phase", but in general there are eight recognised phases. These are:-

# New ---------- Day 0

# Waxing Crescent ---- Day 3

# First Quarter------ Day 7

# Waxing Gibbous----- Day 10

# Full`----------- Day 14

# Waning Gibbous ----- Day 17

# Last Quarter ------- Day 21

# Waning Crescent ----- Day 25

Answer 8

There are always twelve (12), and if the first one is on or before January 10,

then there's time for one more in the same calendar year.

So ... if you mean any period of 365.25 days when you say "year", then that

number of days can be selected to include 12 full mons, or it can be selected

to include 13 of them.

If you mean the year with one number that's printed all on one calendar from the

hardware store, then that one could have a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 13.

Answer 9

Answer:

As long as the moon is in your hemisphere, and is not blocked by the shadow of earth. i.e. you would not be able to see the moon if you lived in Russia and the moon was orbiting above south america, since part of the actual earth is blocking your view

Answer 10

the phases of the moon from earth are seen in order, from new moon (starting of a month), to waxing crescent, to 1st quarter, waxing gibbous, to full moon, waning crescent, to 3rd quarter, to waning gibbous, then it starts back again. this order takes about 4 weeks to complete (or a month, whatever you prefer). notice that when a waxing moon is showing, every night the bright side of the moon gets bigger, and waning gets smaller. Hope this helped!