There's Moonlight...when??

It happened again last night.

I'm sitting on the couch, playing Spider Solitaire and watching a perfectly good movie.  The characters are settling into their bedrolls after the evening meal on the trail drive, but first they must notice the moon and discuss it.  Sure, it looks pretty, a nice, bright crescent on the horizon.  It's worth looking at.  Only problem is, the director has shot a fourth quarter moon, which rises in the east just before sunrise.  A fourth quarter moon is distinctive by its east (or left) side being lit up, as the sun is shining on it from below that horizon, about to make its appearance.

For some reason, the moon, as a focal point in books and movies, seems to have a mind of its own.  In the wrong hands, it's full one night, a sliver the next.  Or the villain is anticipating a new moon tomorrow (he plans to use the dark of night for some nefarious scheme), but right now it's glowing overhead, as bright as a fire at midnight!

Is this Hollywood's fault?  They've been playing fast and loose with this for years, and we probably see movies more often than we step outside and take note of where the moon is, where it was last night and the night before.

Some brief pointers for your writing:

A full moon and new moon are two weeks apart.  You can't play with this.  If your lovers are meeting one night under a full moon, and you need your villain prowling around beneath a dark sky, you either have to: