There once was a young witch named Andromeda. She was named after the beautiful Andromeda Galaxy. You must understand, Andromeda's dear name sparked her love for space and she especially loved the moon. How much did she love the moon you wonder? She loved it as much as she loved her black cat, Luna. In fact, Luna in Spanish means moon! Luna was a special cat because she could talk.

Andromeda and Luna were an odd duo. They called planet Whirlpool their home.

Every day, Andromeda would go to pick berries in the field four miles from their house, and every night she would sit in the field and write in her moon journal about the phases of the moon. Luna preferred to take naps throughout the day, so she always stayed home. 

One day, Andromeda went to pick berries and then flew back home to get her moon journal to take back to the field. Many hours passed and Andromeda never returned. Luna began to worry about Andromeda. She waited for another hour and then began to worry even more. 

Luna ran outside in hopes that she would see Andromeda walking to the house. Instead, Luna saw someone else walking on a path near the house. 

Luna called out to the person and frantically asked "Have you seen my friend, Andromeda?" The girl walked over to Luna, shook her head and said "No, I haven't. My name is Priya. I'll help you find your friend!"

Luna smiled shyly and said "Thank you! Andromeda, my witch friend, went missing." Priya looked up at the moon and with her eyes wide and told Luna that witches can only return home when the moon is full. This news worried Luna even more.

I wonder where the moon journal is....?

Priya told Luna that she must keep track of the phases each night, to make sure that Andromeda returns home safely. Luna sighed in relief and an excellent idea popped into her mind. She would use Andromeda's moon journal to figure out what phase the moon was in each night.

Luna saw in the journal that Andromeda wrote about something called a waning gibbous moon. Luna did not understand what that was, so she asked Priya, "What is a waning gibbous moon?" "A waning gibbous moon is the phase of the moon that occurs right after a full moon. See how you can only see part of the moon? That is because waning means to get smaller, and gibbous refers to the shape of the moon," Priya explained.

The next night Luna looked in the journal at Andromeda's moon illustrations and exclaimed "Look at that, the moon is growing!"

"Great observation skills!" Priya praised.

"The moon does look like it's growing, because more light is shed onto it compared to the last moon phase. This is a third quarter moon. Some people call it the half moon. Can you guess why?" Priya asked.

"I think because we see half of the moon?" Luna guessed unsteadily.

"You are exactly right! I think you might be getting the hang of this," Priya said.

"Before you know it we will meet Andromeda again..."

A few nights passed, and Luna and Priya met at their spot again. This time the moon looked different, like a thin little "C" in the night time sky.

Priya confidently began to explain, "This is what we call the waning crescent. Waning means that we see the moon illuminated from the left side here on Earth. Crescent tells us the shape of the moon. You can remember this by knowing that the word 'crescent' starts with a 'C', and a crescent moon has a C-shape!"

"Oh no!" Luna cried. "Now the moon is completely gone... I'll never see my Andromeda again!"

Priya giggled. "Don't worry. The next phase of the moon is called the new moon. We call it this because the moon cycle is starting over. The moon is completely covered by the Earth's shadow, but it doesn't go away forever!"