Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.180.46.31-20140408175222

Since Secunda orbits Masser (see the Masser article), many of the listed phase pairings aren't actually possible.

I'm going to assume that Secunda gets eclipsed when it goes behind Masser (relative to the sun) and that Masser and Secunda are not eclipsed by Nirn when it is between them and the sun (or else the full phase wouldn't be possible).

The phase pairings in question can be reconciled (even if a bit messily) if you allow the shadow of Masser to be the cause of Secunda's phases as well as how visible or not it's natural dark side is. If Secunda is anywhere besides partially or fully inside Masser's shadow, it will be in exactly the same phase as Masser. As it goes behind Masser, Secunda wanes as Masser's shadow is cast over it. While it is behind Masser, Secunda is completely eclipsed and is in the "new" phase. When it comes back out from behind Masser it waxes as it emerges back into the light of the sun and returns to being in the same phase as Masser. These pseudo-phases do not happen when Masser is new however. It doesn't matter at that phase if Secunda is in Masser's shadow or not, since regardless of it's position only Secunda's natural dark side will be visible from Nirn, meaning that when Masser is new it is only possible for Secunda to be new as well.

However, in common practice we do not consider the shadows of other celestial bodies to cause phases in moons (i.e. when our moon is eclipsed by Earth, we do not say that it is in the new phase). So without the assumption at the beginning of the previous paragraph, and the fact that Secunda orbits Masser, most of the listed phase pairings are just simply impossible since Secunda is always in the same phase as Masser.

Consider the Ohmes type of Khajiit: Masser new, Secunda Full. Knowing that Secunda orbits Masser, this is glaringly impossible since Secunda would need to be on the opposite side of Nirn from Masser for this to happen. 