There are 8 main phases of the Moon that astronomers typically talk about.

Quick Scoop

The Moon goes through a repeating cycle of eight phases roughly every 29.5 days as it orbits Earth.

The 8 phases in order

  1. New Moon
  1. Waxing Crescent
  1. First Quarter
  1. Waxing Gibbous
  1. Full Moon
  1. Waning Gibbous
  1. Third (Last) Quarter
  1. Waning Crescent

These phases are just different amounts of the Moon’s sunlit half that we can see from Earth, not the Moon changing shape.

Little extra context

  • The whole cycle from one New Moon to the next is about 29.5 days, often called a lunar month.
  • Four are “primary” phases (New, First Quarter, Full, Third Quarter) and four are “intermediate” (the crescents and gibbous phases).

TL;DR: When people ask “how many phases of the Moon are there,” the standard answer is 8 named phases in each lunar cycle.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.