Phases of the Moon and its orbit around the Earth (1).
1.Everything (almost) in the
solar system rotates or orbits counterclockwise, as seen
from the North.
2.The illumination of the
Earth and the moon will be almost the same, since the sun is so far
away that both receive light from (almost) the same direction.
3.It takes 4 weeks for the
moon to complete an orbit of the earth.
4.The moon is phase-locked. In other words, we always see the
same face, although the illumination pattern we see changes. How long is a lunar day?
From our text: Horizons, by Seeds