Moon
Core route · astronomy intuition
Phases, light, and the lunar terminator made easy to read.
This note turns moon phases into a spatial problem you can feel. Move the light, watch the shadow line travel across the surface, and build a better intuition for crescents, gibbous phases, and why the same moon can look so different across the month.
At a glance
The maintained version lives at the route linked here, with this garden note keeping the embed and editorial framing.
Moon phases are often memorized as pictures. This makes them legible as a lighting problem, which is much easier to retain.
Start by dragging the light angle slowly through a full cycle. Watch how the bright edge shifts, then compare thin crescents against near-full phases until the geometry feels obvious.
About 8 to 12 minutes. Beginner friendly. It is one of the cleanest short routes for spatial-lighting intuition.
Embed
Reading path
- Open the live interactive: https://kohnnn.github.io/interactive-explanation/moon/
- Continue through Earth-and-Sun when you want the wider orbital-lighting companion
- Continue through Visual Notes for more physics and geometry explainers
- Move through Interactive when you want the wider collection by theme