Ascertain the Moon Phase With Your Hand

Can't tell whether the moon is waxing or waning? Is it going to be a Full Moon next week, or Dark Moon? The Moon's phases grow from right to left in the Northern Hemisphere, backwards to how you - in the West - read. So the Waxing Moon begins on the right side of the moon. And the Waning Moon ends on the left side. But how can you remember this easily? Here's a simple way to determine whether the moon is waxing or waning.

Steps

  1. Flatten your right hand, with your fingers together and your thumb sticking out at 90°.
  2. Hold your hand out at arm's length in front of you. Tilt your fingers to a 45° angle to the left.

Alternative Method

  1. It can be imagined as if you are holding a glass of water with your right hand fingers and thumb and drinking... as shown in the figure below -
  2. See how the curve along your thumb and first finger makes a crescent, roughly like a backwards letter "'C'"? It actually looks sort of like this: ) This is the shape of the Waxing Moon. If the Moon's curve fits along this right-hand curve, it is a Waxing Moon.
  3. Commit it to memory. One way to remember this is to think of drawing in wax. Most people are right-handed, and if they were to draw in wax, they'd use their right hand. So if the Moon fits in your right-hand curve, it is waxing.
  4. Do the same with the left hand. This makes a shape like: ( This is the shape of the Waning Moon. If the moon fits in this curve, you know it is getting smaller every day, going toward the New Moon / Dark Moon.

Tips

  • Reference a moon phase calculator such as a solunar iPhone app
  • Moon on the right, getting bigger every night (waxing).
  • If you have difficulty remembering that waning means getting smaller, you can think that waning means weakening. Weakening has the word waning inside it: W-e-A-k-e-N-I-N-G.
  • NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a vast storehouse of knowledge about celestial phenomena. If you want to know anything at all about the moon, including when the next eclipse is going to be, check their website.
  • When the moon is waning, it is fading to the left until there's no moon remaining.[1]
  • Waxing is easy to remember if you remind yourself that when you wax the floor, it grows in brightness and shine ~ just like the moon grows in brightness when it is waxing.
  • (Important Note: If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, this process is reversed.) Think that the moon looks like a letter "C" for "crescendo" when in the waxing phase.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/moon_phases.phtml CalculatorCat.com moon phases

Moon Phases & Wicca - Original source of information, used with permission by author.

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