how come you can only see part of the moon?

Question

tonight, the moon is just a little bitty sliver, and i wanna know how it does that. the sun was the same way...

Answer 1

The Moon is spherical, so of course half of it's hidden all the time. The Moon's in a tidally locked orbit as well, so the same face is always towards Earth; 44 percent of the Moon's surface can never be seen from Earth.

But I don't think that's what you were asking. I think you were asking why the Moon looks like a sliver. It's also simple: the Moon is lit by sunlight. You will notice the bright part of the Moon ALWAYS, without exception, points at the Sun. (Sometimes you can faintly see the side away from the Sun; this faint illumination is sunlight bouncing off Earth's clouds and feebly illuminating the Moon through radiosity.)

To demonstrate the phases of the moon, get a ball and a lamp in a darkened room. Hold up the ball in front of you and turn around. Notice the phases of the ball, just like the Moon.

Answer 2

Only part of the moon is lit by the Sun. The rest of the moon is lit by the Earth, and is much dimmer.

Answer 3

Because the moon is spherical, you can only see one face of it. Another factor affecting how much of the moon that you can see is the light that reflects off of it. It comes down to astronomical positioning and light.

Answer 4

The keeps the same side to earth all the time.