Moon phase wall art comes in two honest varieties and a lot of dishonest ones. The honest kinds: the full cycle laid out as a sequence, or a single phase drawn well. The dishonest kind looks the same in a product photo - and falls apart the moment you check it against the sky. This guide gives you the checks, the sizes, and the costs, with our own prices stated plainly at the end.
The one test: does the sequence run true?
The Moon runs through eight phases in a fixed order - new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent - in a cycle of about 29.5 days. NASA keeps that list, and any moon phase print should match it. Our phases guide covers each one.
So the test, on any print you are considering:
- Count the phases. Eight, or the four principal ones (new, first quarter, full, last quarter) - but in the right order.
- Check the direction of growth. From the northern hemisphere, a waxing Moon lights from the right. If a print shows the crescents growing from the left on the way up to full, it is decorative nonsense.
- Check the terminator. The line between the lit and dark parts of a real Moon is a smooth curve, not a straight edge, and a crescent's points taper.
- Distrust extra detail. Stars inside the dark part of a disc, moons shown with random surface features per phase - none of that survives contact with a telescope or even binoculars.
The same checks apply to the personalised kind: the popular prints that show the moon phase on a specific date - a wedding, a birth. There the accuracy question is factual rather than sequential: is the phase shown actually the phase that was in the sky on that date? A seller who cannot tell you their data source is guessing. NASA's Daily Moon Guide shows the real phase for any recent date, so you can verify before the print ships.
Sizes and framing
Moon phase art is usually bought large-ish, because the sequence needs width to read - the whole point is the row. The format decisions are the same as for any art print, which our canvas vs framed print vs poster guide covers in full; the short version for this piece:
- Unframed prints (A4, A3, A2) - the most flexible: frame them to your room, cheaper to post, easy to group with other pieces.
- Framed prints - arrive ready to hang; on a sequence piece the frame is part of the reading, so pick a finish you can live with for years.
- Canvas - gallery-wrapped, no glass, reads as a single object rather than a picture in a frame. Suits the cycle well.
What moon phase prints cost
Our own live range, quoted from the catalogue today, by format: posters run from £14.99 (A4) through £28.99 (A3) and £32.49 (A2) to £44.99 (70x100 cm); framed posters run £69 (A3) to £102.99 (A2) in black; canvas runs £51.49 (30x40 cm) to £99 (60x80 cm), with framed canvas from £93.49 up to £154.49 (50x70 cm); and there are metal (£81-£128) and wood (£63.99-£86.99) options for the pieces you want to feel like objects. Everything is made to order in the UK with free UK delivery.
What we will not do is quote a market-wide price band, because "moon phase print" covers everything from mass-poster decoration to hand-drawn commissions and the spread is meaningless. Judge by the checks above and the seller's willingness to answer them.
The one we make
We are biased, obviously: we make prints, and both of these pass every test in this piece because they were drawn from the sequence itself. All three live in the moon & lunar collection.
For the timing behind the sequence - why each phase lasts a few nights and why the cycle takes 29.5 days - read the phases guide. For the dates of the full moons themselves, there is the full moon calendar. Both are part of Looking up, the half of this site that is free to read and not trying to sell you anything. This page is the exception that proves the pattern: it sells, but the checks above work on our competitors too.
