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The eight phases
One cycle runs 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes. Below is what the moon looks like at each stage, when it is in the sky, and what people have long done with that stretch of the month.
New MoonThe moon is between us and the sun, lit on the side we cannot see.Waxing CrescentA thin lit edge on the right, growing wider each evening.First QuarterExactly half lit — the moon is a quarter of the way round its orbit.Waxing GibbousMost of the disc is lit, with one shrinking shadowed edge.Full MoonEarth sits between sun and moon; the whole visible face is lit.Waning GibbousStill mostly lit, but the shadow has crossed over and is growing.Last QuarterHalf lit again, the mirror image of the first quarter.Waning CrescentA thinning arc before dawn, lit on the left.
The moonflower plates
Each phase page carries one plate from a single series: a moonflower, Ipomoea alba, followed from closed bud to seed. It is an emblem rather than botany — the real flower opens at dusk and closes by morning, all in one night. The series stretches that night across the month.
