English: Diagram of lunar phases, created by Minesweeper and donated to Wikipedia. Graphics of the Earth and Moon were obtained with the help of the open source program Celestia. The lunar phase depends on the Moon's position in orbit around the Earth and the Earth's position in orbit around the sun. This diagram looks down on Earth from north. Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit are both counter-clockwise here. Sunlight is coming in from the right, as indicated by the yellow arrows. From this diagram we can see, for example, that the full moon will always rise at sunset and that the waning crescent moon is high overhead around 9:00 AM local time.