What is so peculiar about the phases of the Moon?

The Moon moves smoothly through its monthly cycle. We just arbitrarily divide it into 8 pieces, each lasting about 3.5 days, because 8 is a nice number to work with. But we could have picked anything. If you wanted to, you could just as well divide the Moon's cycle into 42,480 phases, each one lasting a minute. read more

We have names for 8 phases (others have listed them here), but a key point is that they are entirely man-made divisions. The Moon moves smoothly through its monthly cycle. We just arbitrarily divide it into 8 pieces, each lasting about 3.5 days, because 8 is a nice number to work with. But we could have picked anything. read more

At the full moon, the moon's face is completely bright and we see an entire circle in the sky. During this part of the cycle, the full moon rises at almost the very same time the sun is setting. When the moon is exactly full, it rises at the very moment that the sun sets in the western sky. read more