Did you know that the Moon goes through a cycle of faces each month? Do you know, offhand, what the phase of the Moon is right now? You will always find an illustration of the current phase of the Moon in the upper left corner of the observing page of the Carpe Caelum website. This image is provided by the U.S. Naval Observatory. As one month goes by, the Moon presents different phases because of the changing illumination of the Sun. Click here to learn the proper nomenclature for the various phases of the Moon. Sadly, it seems that most people don’t watch the sky enough to be very familiar with how the Moon presents itself, something that was fairly common knowledge a couple of hundred years ago. But after a month or so of paying attention to our companion in space, you should have a good understanding of how to look for the Moon. This page gives a somewhat useful explanation of how phases work. Does anyone care anymore about the current phase of the Moon. We have so much artificial lighting at night these days, that is is easy to not notice what the Moon is doing. But centuries ago, the phase of the Moon could make a tremendous difference in the course of human events. It even helped free an accused murderer. Pick a particular event in history that occured at night. What was the phase of the Moon? For a nice applet that you can manipulate to see the Moon at different times of the month, try this page..