This media file needs to be cleaned up, because:some of the phases, especially the waxing crescent, need to be smoother.. For help, see Commons:Media for cleanup.
Diagram illustrating various phases of the Moon in their order of appearance starting from the New Moon and progressing through Crescent, First Quarter, and Gibbous to reach the Full Moon. It is followed by Gibbous, Last Quarter and Crescent to complete full circle at the New Moon again.
The gray circle around the Earth shows the Moon's orbit. The dotted gray line illustrates moon's trajectory. The solid ivory line passing through the earth is indicative of Earth's orbit around the Sun. Notice that this graphical representation can be misleading, as the Earth & Moon's path around the Sun is actually always concave towards the Sun[1].