cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43307224

Diagram illustrating various phases of the Moon in their order of appearance starting from the New Moon and progressing through Crescent, First Quarter, and Gibbous to reach the Full Moon. It is followed by Gibbous, Last Quarter and Crescent to complete full circle at the New Moon again.

The gray circle around the Earth shows the Moon's orbit. The dotted gray line illustrates moon's trajectory. The solid ivory line passing through the earth is indicative of Earth's orbit around the Sun. Notice that this graphical representation can be misleading, as the Earth & Moon's path around the Sun is actually always concave towards the Sun[1].

Author: Fresheneesz~commonswiki

CC BY 2.5

Hum... The phase where the Moon is shrinking is called Crescent?

Now do tides!