Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24757748-20140509034237/@comment-24198837-20140509211937

I know it's the RWBY-verse, but physics in reality doesn't work in a way that would allow parts of the moon to stay suspended in space like that while the moon rotates on it's axis and rotates around the planet. The only way for phases to also show more of the moon's broken pieces would for the moon to not be rotating around Remnant (impossible, it would fall to the planet due to gravity), for the pieces to be in perfect geosynchronous orbit with both the moon and Remnant (near impossible), or for the pieces to be magically locked in place, which seems the most likely solution.

Or RWBYverse has different space physics than our universe. Or Monty didn't consider astrophysics when designing an anime.

...I'd bet on the last one.