Sun · Earth · Moon
Drag the Moon around its orbit, or scrub through one synodic month. The left panel is the geometry from above; the right panel is what you would actually see looking up.
Waxing Gibbous
HIGH IN THE SOUTH AFTER SUNSET
Pick any date from 5000 BC to AD 5000 and see the Moon as it looked, or will look, that evening.
Half the Moon is always lit. A phase is just how much of that lit half is turned toward us. Earth’s shadow only touches the Moon during a lunar eclipse — rare, because the orbit is tilted about 5° and usually misses.
The same face points at us always, but sunlight sweeps across it: every spot on the Moon gets roughly 14.8 days of day and 14.8 days of night. The far side is unseen, not unlit.
Only the full moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. A first quarter moon rises around noon and is easy to spot in an afternoon sky — the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each day.