First Quarter or Third Quarter.
That's true at the moments of First Quarter and Third Quarter phases.
The amount of the lighted side of the moon you can see is the same during the first quarter and the last quarter phases. In both phases, half of the moon's illuminated side is visible from Earth.
The amount of lighted side of the moon you can see is the same during first quarter and third quarter phases. These phases occur when half of the moon's surface is illuminated, and they represent the halfway points between new moon and full moon phases.
This is what causes the so-called "phases" of the moon: although fully half of the moon is lighted, we can only see part of the lighted part. A person on earth hardly ever sees all of the lighted side of the moon. When he does, he calls the sight a "full moon."
Those shapes, and the corresponding phases, are called "crescents" ... when the lighted part that we see is less than half of a full disk.
A gibbous moon is one of the phases of the Moon, when the size of the illuminated portion is greater than half but not a full Moon.
Yes, half of the moon is always facing the sun. We only see different phases because of the angle at which we view it throughout every month..EXCEPT DURING A LUNAR ECLIPSE!
the lighted half is facing towards the sun not the earth
The waxing moon phase is when the moon is transitioning from new moon to full moon, and the illuminated portion of the moon is growing larger each night. During this phase, we can see more than half of the moon's lighted side from Earth.
That phase is called the third quarter or it could be called a waning half moon.
One half of the moon, the side that faces the Sun, is always lighted. But we usually see only part of the lighted side (phases) as the Moon orbits the Earth. When the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun (a new moon) none of the lighted side, facing the Sun, is visible from Earth.
Yes. There is always (except during certain eclipses) half of the moon illuminated. However, there is no 'dark side of the moon' per se. The same part of the moon is always facing the earth, but the part that is lighted changes by the minute, just as it does on Earth.