Moon Phases and People

There is no real scientific evidence for this. The only thing that has a real connection to the moon's phases is to the cycles of the tides.

People will quote anecdotal 'evidence' to try to show connections.

Think of the wolf howling at the moon.

Certain plant species doing abnormal things while it's full or new.

Think of the saying, "Where did all these crazy people come from? It must be a full moon!"

Sometimes people come up with studies which seem to imply connections, but they haven't been able to stand up to rigorous analysis. If you think about it, before widespread street lighting, strong moonlight would enable all sorts of activities that can't happen at the dark of the moon, and people extrapolated from there. The confusion with a woman's menstrual cycle (which certainly can cause mood swings!) is a result of the coincidence of the lengths of the cycles.

The Moon phase when only a sliver of light can be seen is known as the crescent phase. It occurs in the second phase, known as the Waxing Crescent Moon, and in the last phase, known as the Waning Crescent Moon.

New Moon, aka: First stage.

These are the phases:

1.) New Moon

2.) Waxing Crescent

3.) First Quarter

4.) Waxing Gibbous

5.) Full Moon

6.) Wanning Gibbous

7.) Third Quarter

8.) Wanning Crescent

I hope this is more than enough help! :)

The higher "spring" tides occur at the new and full Moon, while the lower "neap" tides occur at the first and third quarter Moons.

First Quarter does.

The moon orbits around the earth every 29.53058868 days. It orbits in the same direction that the earth turns. Since the moon is in a much higher orbit than a geosynchronous satellite (which orbits with us every day and stays in the same position in the sky) its orbit is very slow. The moon appears to move across the sky at nearly the same speed as the sun, but just a bit slower. Personally I remember that the sun is faster because of a Greek myth about Helios, the sun, chasing after Selene, the moon.

At "half Moon" we see half of the Moon's hemisphere that is facing Earth.

But "half Moon" isn't what astronomers call that phase of the Moon.

It is called a "quarter Moon" phase.

That's because the Moon has completed one quarter (at First Quarter phase) or three quarters (at Third Quarter phase) of an orbit around the Earth since new Moon.

(Another possible reason is that we see a quarter of the total surface of the Moon at these phases.)

The terminator appears as a darkened crescent. As the Moon "wanes," the crescent straightens until at Last Quarter it becomes a straight line from pole to pole. Then, as the Moon continues to wane, the terminator becomes more and more curved, but in the opposite direction.

(Restating the question as "What phase of the Moon follows 'waning gibbous'?)

The phase of the Moon which follows 'Waning Gibbous' is 'Last Quarter'. The Gibbous phases are the periods when the Moon is more than 50% illuminated. Waxing being the period when it is approaching Full, and Waning being the period after Full, but before 'Last Quarter'. See Wikipedia entry for "Lunar Phase"

The moon is non-luminous and it reflects its light from the sun. When the Earth moves between the Moon and the sun the moon has nowhere to get light to reflect off of because of the earth's shadow so it becomes dark, and that's when we have a Lunar Eclipse.

The distance to the moon is not dependent upon its phase. Sometimes the new moon might be at perigee (closest approach to earth), and sometimes the full moon is at perigee, and sometimes other phases.

We get high tides and low tides every day, but the size of those highs and lows varies. At new Moon and full Moon, the Sun's and Moon's gravitational pulls reinforce each other so high tides are higher and low tides are lower. To put it another way, the tidal range is greatest at these times. This is called a spring tide.

A solar eclipse can occur only at the time of New Moon.

A lunar eclipse can occur only at the time of Full Moon.

Known as "First Quarter". The moon appears half-illuminated. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the half you see to your RIGHT. The moon rises in the east at roughly Noon, and sets in the west at roughly Midnight.

On February 4, 2010, the moon was in the waning gibbous phase.

At the beginning of 2/4 ... 00:00 GMT, it was 70.9% illuminated.

24 hours later, at the end of 2/4 ... 24:00 GMT, it was 60.6% illuminated.

The First Quarter Moon is the phase of the Moon which is most easily spotted by the casual observer. You see the Moon in this phase in the south as the Sun sets. If the sky is clear at sunset, you can't miss the first quarter Moon. In this phase, the Moon sets at midnight. In a crystal clear sky, you can even see the first quarter Moon a few hours before sunset in the southeast.
the cicle is new moon, waxing crescent,first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning cresent,then new moon again and so on so a first quarter moon is when you can't seehalf the moon.

October 27, 2009 -- the moon was waxing gibbous, almost but not quite full.

No. When you think about it, the highest appearance of the moon in the sky
has to take place during the Winter, in either hemisphere.

The moon's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic.
So the highest possible appearance is when the moon is
above the ecliptic AND when the ecliptic is high.

The moon is above the ecliptic for half of every lunar cycle ... 2 weeks out of every 4.
The ecliptic is high at night when it's low during the day ... i.e. in Winter.

# the answer is new

The New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Third Quarter are moments in time,

with no duration.

The Waxing and Waning Crescents, and the Waxing and Waning Gibbous phases,

each last roughly a week.

Yes, all the stages of mitosis are identifiable in one side.

The moon phase on May7th 1969 was waning gibbeous - it decreased to half (or last quarter depending on your frame of reference) on May 9.

We see more of the moon lit when it is a gibbous moon than when it is a crescent moon, so it does seem bigger.

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