Q&A for How to Tell Whether the Moon Is Waxing or Waning

You can’t see most celestial objects during the day because the sun’s light is too bright and overpowering. However, the moon is close enough to Earth to be visible during the day. The light of the sun helps illuminate it so it’s faintly visible during daylight hours.

Some studies suggest that people may not sleep as well when the moon is full, which could potentially affect your mood. However, more research needs to be done on how the phases of the moon may affect mood and mental health.

In Vedic (Hindu) astrology, a waxing moon represents the growth of new ideas and the start of new activities, while the waning moon represents the completion of activities as well as self-reflection and purification.

Waxing is "Maxing," or growing with light until a full moon is reached. Waning is the opposite, or decreasing after a full moon, and is always illuminated on the left. Then, there is a waxing or waning Gibbous moon, which means more than half of the moon is illuminated. And then a waxing or waning Crescent Moon, when less than half is illuminated. A quarter moon is when half the surface which faces the earth is lit.

Waxing means to increase/get bigger, and waning means to decrease/get smaller.

The first quarter (waxing half moon) will have the shape of a lowercase N when it rises and a lowercase U when it sets. The last quarter (waning half moon) will look like a lowercase U when it rises and a lowercase N when it sets. Both the waxing and waning crescent moon phases will look like a smile. The only way to tell the difference is the time of day -- the waxing crescent moon is seen in the evening and the waning crescent is seen in the morning.

That would be a New Moon. In a New Moon, the lit half of the Moon is facing the Sun and we can only see the dark half. There is no light visible during a New Moon.

The moon takes 29.5 days to orbit the Earth (almost a month), meaning the waxing phases of the moon happen on different dates each month. Remember that the moon is always either waxing (to a full moon) or waning (to a new moon) - it doesn't happen in a specific moment. For fun: because the Moon's orbit of the Earth is less than a calendar month, we occasionally get two full moons in the one month. The second is called a blue moon, which is where we get the term "once a blue moon" - i.e not very often.

Three days for new moons, full moons, and quarter moons. Four days for crescents and gibbous.

No, they are not the same. In the Southern Hemisphere, the moon is upside down from the pictures shown.

No, the moon is illuminated on the left half. If you check an online chart of the moon phases and look at the phases on that chart, they should indicate that a waxing gibbous, for instance, is lit on the left side of the disc, 51–99% lit in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the southern hemisphere, yes. In the northern hemisphere, left side illuminated is waning.

This is a very good question. Half of the Moon is always facing the Sun, as all the other planets do. The Moon rotates (spins) and revolves (moves around), hence differentiating the position of the half lit side of the Moon. We also only see the lit part of the Moon as it revolves.

There is no permanently "dark" side. The moon rotates with respect to the sun so that all of its surface gets its share of sunlight. But, because its speed of rotation matches the time it takes to go around the earth, it keeps the same side facing Earth. When the moon is between the earth and the sun, the side facing us is the dark side, and we call it a "new moon" because it will soon begin to grow again from a crescent to full, at which time the side we don't ever see will be dark.

Yes, when the right side of the moon is lit then it is waxing. When the moon is "getting smaller," then it is waning and the moon is lit from the left.

Download a moon app. It will show you when the phases are and give dates for each phase.

In the Northern Hemisphere, if the illuminated side is to the right, then it is still a waxing phase and it is going to be a full moon in few days.

West/east of the sky doesn't matter, nor does hemisphere. From the left, in the northern hemisphere, it would be waning. In the southern hemisphere, it would be waxing.

Some gardeners believe that in the spring you should plant your root vegetable seeds during a waning moon and plant seeds that produce vegetables and fruit above ground during the waxing of the moon; however, there is no solid evidence to show doing this makes more productive plants

A super moon is when the moon looks bigger than usual; a super blue moon is a blue moon that looks bigger than usual, a wolf moon is the first full moon of January, harvest moon is a moon that appears orange, blood moon is another name for harvest moon, and micro moon is when the moon appears smaller than usual!

About half a lunar month, so about 15 days. Same thing with when it waxes. Since the time when it wanes and the time that it waxes are about the same amount of time, they would take the same amount of time. So if you do the math, each would take about half a month.

Observe the moon over at least 5 consecutive days or at intervals of 3-4 days. If you see more of it appearing on the right or less of it appearing on the left then you are in the Northern hemisphere. If you see more of it appearing on the left or less of it appearing on the right then you are in the Southern hemisphere.

You're talking about a "New Moon." That's when the Sun is nearly behind the Moon and we can barely see any portion of the Moon. A "perfect" New Moon occurs on the rare occasion of a solar eclipse when the Sun is directly behind the Moon, and we can't see even a sliver of the Moon. All we seen then is the silhouette of the Moon in front of the Sun.