I understand there are normal phases where the moon is partially covered by the Earth’s shadow, how can it be completely covered one night and full the nights before and after? What happens during an eclipse where the moon can go through all the phases in a few hours, and then go back to full tonight and normal decreasing/increasing phases each night?
In: 17
The scale of things might be wrong in your mind. The shadow of earth is tiny compared to the distance of the orbit of the moon.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgY60MTURp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgY60MTURp0)
this video is slightly more to scale, though not entirely accurate either.
another earth moon scale video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9D6xba9Og](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9D6xba9Og)
another solar system scale website. Scroll to the right a bit and then icons will appear toward the top of the screen, lets you jump to the earth and moon.
[https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html](https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.jtml)
EDIT:
I may have misunderstood the problem at question here and maybe this video can shed some light on how the phases of the moon are due to its location in orbit around the earth, which is separate than the psuedo phases you see as it passes into earths shadow.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ5vty8f9Xc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ5vty8f9Xc)
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