Should you have the opportunity to see it between the frequent bouts of rain, you might observe these nights that the moon stands out full and very clear in the cool air of early winter. Although at any given time it may seem stationary, its progress across the sky is, in fact, comparatively rapid.
I have discovered that a pleasant way of confirming this phenomenon is to choose for your evening digestif a Bierstube boasting of a skylight. From such a vantage point it can be observed that the full moon high in the sky takes no longer to make its way across the aperture than it does for the average person, not afflicted by too great a thirst, to drink ein kleines. But that apparent speed is caused, not by the movement of the moon itself, but by the eastward passage of the earth, the pub, the skylight, and, of course, the imbibing observer underneath.
If the moon really did spin completely around the earth every 24 hours, as it appears to do, then we could watch it go through several different phases in one night. But this, of course, is not the case. In fact the moon's position relative to the earth and sun changes very little in a single night; it is we, spinning rapidly on our earthly axis underneath, who change, and everyone on the planet sees the same phase of the moon at any given time.
The four phases of the moon occupy about 291/2 days, the length of time it takes the satellite to orbit the earth and return to its original position with reference to the sun. The very slender crescent seen in the western sky at sunset just after the "new" phase, gradually thickens with each successive evening. After a week of waxing it has assumed a semi-circular appearance and lies due south when the sun sets; rather confusingly for a half-moon, it is then said to have moved to "first quarter". In yet another week the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, and we see the fully illuminated hemisphere as a bright disc dominating the sky, and rising at around sunset in the east.
During the succeeding 14 days or so, shade encroaches from the side of the moon where the crescent first appeared, and the lighted area gradually diminishes. At the end of the fourth week all that is left is a small crescent, appearing in the sky just before dawn and curving in the opposite direction to that which it had assumed a month before, when new.