Table of Contents Phases of the moon…………1 New moon………………………..2 Full moon………………………….3 First Quarter……………………..4 Waning Gibbous………………..5 Waning Crescent……………….6 Waxing Crescent……………….7 Waxing Gibbous……………….8 Third Quarter……………………9 The lunar phase or phase of the moon is the shape of directly sunlit portion of the moon as viewed from earth. The lunar phases gradually change over the period of the synodic month, as the orbital positions of the moon around earth and of earth around the sun shift.