Lunar Phases

The phase of the Moon that occurs when it is three-quarters full just before the full Moon phase is the waxing gibbous phase. This phase occurs as the Moon is waxing, or growing larger, towards the full Moon.

Depending on where you live, you have high tides about every 12 hours, no matter what the phase of the Moon.

However, at the full and new moons, you have higher-than-average "spring" tides, because the gravitational pull of the Moon lines up with the much lower gravitational pull of the Sun.

At the quarter moons, we have lower-than-average "neap" tides because the tidal pull of the Moon and the tidal pull of the Sun are working at cross-purposes.

When the visible bright part of the Moon is increasing in size, the term "waxing" is used. When the visible part of the Moon is less and less illuminated each night, the term "waning" applies.

the word Gibbous refers to phases where the moon than half illuminated

The illuminated part

waxing gibbous

First Quarter

When viewed from the Earth, if the light side of the Moon appears on the left-hand side, it is classed as "Waning" (getting smaller from a full-moon), whilst if the light is on the right-hand side, it is classed as "Waxing" (getting bigger towards a full-moon).

If the Sun leads the Moon in their respective orbits across the sky, the light will be on the right-hand side. If the Moon leads the Sun, the light will be on the left-hand side.

Whilst the Moon is associated with night and darkness, the Moon can often be seen during daylight (though difficult to see clearly in a bright daytime sky).

The riddles come at the end of each episode of MoonPhase, during the Preview for the following episode. One of them is...

"Give me air, and I live....

Give me water, and I die....

What am I?" (Answer: Fire)

It's full.

Here.

Right now.

__________________________

Questions about "current" conditions aren't all that useful on WikiAnswers, where the question and the answers remain online for years. If you want to know the phase of the Moon "right now", there are apps for your Android smartphone or your iPhone, and there are many web sites that post the current phase of the Moon.

One useful site is the U.S. Naval Observatory's site, which offers all sorts of interesting data including the phases of the Moon and times of sunrise and sunset.

This question was posted on January 26, 2013. The Moon is "full" on January 27, 2013 at 4:38 AM Coordinated Universal Time (the fancy name for Greenwich Mean Time). So Alcohen2006's answer above was probably about 6 minutes off. Close enough!

The moon phases that change the appearance of the moon as seen from Earth are caused by the relative positions of the sun, Earth, and moon. The major phases include new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter, with each phase showing a different amount of illuminated surface to Earth.

Waxing crescent is the phase that follows the new moon when it appears as a small outer portion of a circle.

Just a second ... let me look ...

Right now it's a waning crescent, just a few days before New Moon.

(8:00 PM CST, March 10, 2010)

what does waxing creasent mean

13.

Waning Gibbous is the moon phase that comes after the Full Moon.

Yes, it doesn't matter that the Moon rotates on its axis, that makes no difference to the phase. The phase only depends on the relative positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

Spring tide

A new moon occurs at the beginning of the lunar cycle, and 28 days later, you would have a full moon. This is because a full lunation cycle, which is the time it takes for the moon to go from new moon to full moon and back to new moon, is about 29.5 days.

Two weeks after the waning gibbous phase of the moon you will see a new moon.

As we see it, it is the full Moon. However, at any time, the Sun is shining on a full side of the moon, so the same amount of light is reflected, but less light is reflected towards us. How much daylight and darkness there is, also affects how much light appears to be reflected from the Moon as we see it. So when the Moon is visible before the Sun sets, it doesn't look as bright as it does after the Sun sets.

A full moon phase is when the full face of the moon facing earth is a complete disc of reflected sunlight. So, I don't really understand the question that states a full moon can't be seen?

Some people expect to see the Sun during the day, and the Moon in the darkness of the night. But, depending on the position the Moon has reached in its orbit round the World, the Moon may appear during the day. Once the Sun is shining brightly, the Moon is less, if not impossible to see, because of the brightness of the daylight. Early dawn or twilight, when the sky is not too bright is the best time to see that the Moon, in all its phases, can appear during the day.

Waning gibbous, Third Quarter and Waning Crescent are the 'waning' moon phases.

The Moon orbits around the Earth on an angle so it usually does not go directly behind the Earth. When it does move directly behind the earth, that is when we see a lunar eclipse.