Get Moon Cycle Days Images. The moon takes 27.3 days to orbit earth, but the lunar phase cycle (from new moon to the moon spends the extra 2.2 days catching up because earth travels about 45 million miles around the sun. It takes 29.53 days for the moon to orbit the earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8.
The moon cycle has 29.5 days, changing from the waxing new moon of increasing light, to the full moon of total illumination, to the dark waning moon of decreasing light.
You can set the month and year for hundreds of years. Animation of the moon as it cycles through its phases, as seen from the northern hemisphere. 11 days 7 hours 39 minutes. The moon changes in appearance and location in the sky everyday, which is why we refer to the moon by its phases:
