The Natural Compass

Moon tonight

First Quarter

We see half the moon lit up — the right side looks bright like a capital D.

This is a gibbous moon: most of the disk is day side (pale). Any thin dark curve is still night on the moon — not a lit crescent. A thin silver crescent only shows when we are under about half lit.

Everyone on Earth sees the same phase at the same moment — only your local clock time differs. The drawing matches how the moon looks in the northern sky; south of the equator, left and right in the picture swap.