Have you ever paid close attention to the moon in the dark sky? Sometimes you cannot see the moon at all, only the stars. Some nights the moon looks like a big bright circle while other nights the moon only has a tiny sliver of light. If you make observations of the moon every night within a month, you will see the looks of the moon changing. Each different look of the moon that you see at different times during the month is called a “phase” of the moon. Why does the moon appear to have different looks within a month?
The main reason why the moon has different phases is because the moon orbits Earth. The Earth revolves around the Sun. The moon revolves separately around the Earth. The moon does not actually change itself. The moon changes its look because the moon will show only when the sunlight shines on the side of the moon facing the Earth. For example, when Earth is between the moon and the Sun, you can see the full, circle, bright moon because the Sun shines on the side of the moon so that you can see the moon entirely. Next, what are the phases of the moon?
There are a total of eight phases of the moon. The moon starts with The New Moon Phase. People only see a dark outline of the moon. During The Waxing Crescent Phase, the moon shows a little silver on its right. Next is The First Quarter Phase, which is half of the full moon. When it is The Waxing Gibbous Phase, it is over half of the moon and it looks like an oval shape. During The Full Moon Phase, the moon appears as a large bright circle in the sky. Then the moon starts to lose some pieces. In The Waning Gibbous Phase, some of the full moons begin to fall into the shadows. Then in The Last Quarter Phase, the moon becomes half-full again. When it is The Waning Crescent Phase, the moon has only a little silver left. The moon is almost gone, and the new lunar cycle begins again. The cycle is about twenty-nine days.
My favorite phase of the moon is The Full Moon Phase because the full moon makes me think of my dear family living in Taiwan. Whenever I see the full bright circle-size of the moon shining on the dark sky, the first image that comes into my mind is the big, wooden circle dining table in my grandparent’s house. Whenever I visit my grandparents, they will prepare vegetables, meat, and seafood I like most. While eating and sitting around the moon-like table, I get to talk with my grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts. I shared what was funny in my life and we laughed. The full moon leads me to the memories of family reunions. Although I don’t see my whole family in Taiwan very often, the moon acts like a mail that tells them I miss them very much!
Standing from Earth, I find that the moon is beautiful and full of surprises because of its brightness and the change of its look every single day. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, one of the astronauts on Apollo 11, became the first human to land on the moon. This is a big encouragement that humans can go to space and land on planets. Neil Armstrong once said “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This is actually true. Recently humans are entering the age of space tourism. Space tourism is becoming a real thing. Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is currently building Starship, planning to send tourists to the moon in 2025 or so. Maybe when I grow up, I can take the Starship to visit the moon!
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