Waxing Crescent Moon (Northern Hemisphere)
The Short Answer (TSA)
A Crescent Moon is one phase in the regular cycle of phases of the Moon. The Moon is in the Crescent phase whenever part, but less than half, of the Moon’s face is sunlit. “Waxing” means increasing. So, the Moon is called a “Waxing Crescent Moon” when the sunlit part of the face of the Moon is (1) increasing in size and (2) appears in the shape of crescent.
At the first phase, the “New Moon,” the Moon disappears from the night sky. At the next phase, the Crescent Moon, the Moon reappears, but the sunlit part of its face as only a tiny sliver in shape of a crescent. That tiny sliver of reflected light first appears on the right outer edge of the Moon in the Northern Hemisphere and on the left outer edge in the Southern Hemisphere.
Night after night, the size of the sunlit part of the Moon’s face grows in size. Again, because the Moon’s light is growing, it’s called a “waxing” Moon. And because part, but less than half, of the face of the Moon is sunlit, it’s called a “Crescent” Moon.
The “Waxing Crescent Moon” continues until the sunlit part of the Moon’s face increases to the half-way point. The half-sunlit Moon isn’t a crescent any more. So, the Moon with its face half-sunlit is in a new phase -- called the “1st Quarter” Moon.
In terms of phases, the waxing Crescent Moon comes after the New Moon and before the “1st Quarter” Moon. Put another way, the Waxing Crescent Moon “phase” begins with the first appearance of reflected sunlight on the face of the Moon (in the shape of a thin crescent) and ends when half the face of the Moon is sunlit.
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