Moon Phases — The Complete Guide
Learn every moon phase in simple words, see every moon phase emoji in order, and find out what each one means.
Moon Phase Emoji Sequence
These are the 8 moon phase emojis, in the same order the moon follows every single month. This is the complete lunar cycle as a single string of emojis:
🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘
New → Waxing Crescent → First Quarter → Waxing Gibbous → Full → Waning Gibbous → Last Quarter → Waning Crescent
The 8 Moon Phases In Order
Phase 1 of 8
New Moon
U+1F311
The moon is hiding between Earth and the sun. Its bright side faces the sun, so from here we see almost nothing — just a dark round shape in the sky.
Illumination range: 0% – 1%
Phase 2 of 8
Waxing Crescent
U+1F312
A thin sliver of light grows on the right side of the moon. It looks like a tiny curved banana getting bigger every night.
Illumination range: 1% – 49%
Phase 3 of 8
First Quarter
U+1F313
Exactly half of the moon's face is lit on the right side. It looks like a perfect half circle, like a round cookie bitten in half.
Illumination range: 49% – 51%
Phase 4 of 8
Waxing Gibbous
U+1F314
More than half of the moon is lit and the bright part keeps growing. It looks like a fat oval that is almost, but not quite, a full circle.
Illumination range: 51% – 99%
Phase 5 of 8
Full Moon
U+1F315
The whole round face of the moon is lit up and shines bright. This is the biggest, brightest moon you can see in the whole cycle.
Illumination range: 99% – 100%
Phase 6 of 8
Waning Gibbous
U+1F316
The moon starts to shrink back from full. The bright side is now on the left and the dark part grows from the right, like a moon going backwards.
Illumination range: 51% – 99%
Phase 7 of 8
Last Quarter
U+1F317
Again exactly half is lit, but this time the left side. It is the mirror image of the first quarter moon — the other half of the cookie.
Illumination range: 49% – 51%
Phase 8 of 8
Waning Crescent
U+1F318
Only a thin curved sliver of light is left on the left side. It is getting smaller every night until it disappears for a new moon.
Illumination range: 1% – 49%
All Moon Phases Table
| Emoji | Phase Name | Unicode | Illumination | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🌑 | New Moon | U+1F311 | 0%–1% | The moon is hiding between Earth and the sun. Its bright side faces the sun, so from here we see almost nothing — just a dark round shape in the sky. |
| 🌒 | Waxing Crescent | U+1F312 | 1%–49% | A thin sliver of light grows on the right side of the moon. It looks like a tiny curved banana getting bigger every night. |
| 🌓 | First Quarter | U+1F313 | 49%–51% | Exactly half of the moon's face is lit on the right side. It looks like a perfect half circle, like a round cookie bitten in half. |
| 🌔 | Waxing Gibbous | U+1F314 | 51%–99% | More than half of the moon is lit and the bright part keeps growing. It looks like a fat oval that is almost, but not quite, a full circle. |
| 🌕 | Full Moon | U+1F315 | 99%–100% | The whole round face of the moon is lit up and shines bright. This is the biggest, brightest moon you can see in the whole cycle. |
| 🌖 | Waning Gibbous | U+1F316 | 51%–99% | The moon starts to shrink back from full. The bright side is now on the left and the dark part grows from the right, like a moon going backwards. |
| 🌗 | Last Quarter | U+1F317 | 49%–51% | Again exactly half is lit, but this time the left side. It is the mirror image of the first quarter moon — the other half of the cookie. |
| 🌘 | Waning Crescent | U+1F318 | 1%–49% | Only a thin curved sliver of light is left on the left side. It is getting smaller every night until it disappears for a new moon. |
What Are Moon Phases?
The moon is a big round ball of rock that flies around the Earth. But the moon does not make its own light. The light we see at night is just the sun's light bouncing off the moon. That is the whole secret behind the moon phases.
Every day, the moon moves a little more around the Earth. As it moves, the sun lights up a different part of the moon. So from our home on Earth, the moon looks like it is changing shape. It is not really changing — we are just seeing a different slice of the lit side.
There are 8 moon phases in one full lunar cycle. We give each one a name and a moon phase emoji. Together, the 8 phases make one lunar cycle, which lasts about 29 and a half days. After that, the whole thing starts again from a new moon.
The lunar cycle starts with a new moon, when the moon is dark. Then a waxing crescent grows into a first quarter, then a waxing gibbous, until the big bright full moon lights up the night. After the full moon, a waning gibbous shrinks to a last quarter, then a waning crescent, and finally back to a new moon again.
A crescent moon is when only a thin sliver of light shows. A gibbous moon is when most of the moon is lit, but not all of it. The word 'waxing' means growing, and 'waning' means shrinking. That is all there is to it.
The current moon phase changes about every 3 to 4 days, so the right moon phase emoji for today is not the same as it was last week. That is why it is nice to come back to this site and check what the real moon is doing right now.
Want to know what the moon looks like right now?
See today's moon phase emoji