Recently, I looked at the night sky in Mexico and noticed something interesting about today's moon. It turns out that on March 5th, the moon was in that phase called waning gibbous, with almost 95% of its surface illuminated. Basically, after the full moon, it begins to gradually decrease, but it still appears almost full in the night sky.

The interesting part is that this phase is perfect if you want to observe with a telescope. Shadows are very pronounced on lunar craters and mountains; everything appears in relief. Much better than when it's full, which looks flat.

The lunar calendar for March 2026 had several interesting moments. After that waning gibbous, the last quarter occurred on March 11th, when only the left half is illuminated from Earth. According to reports, this is visible well from midnight to noon here in Mexico.

If you observe the moon today or any night, you'll notice how it constantly changes. It goes through eight different phases: new, waxing, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, cuarto menguante, and waning. It's fascinating to see how the satellite transforms its appearance each week. It’s never the same two nights in a row.