Paksha: the bright and dark halves
A lunar month has two halves of 15 tithis each: Shukla Paksha while the Moon waxes and Krishna Paksha while it wanes.
Today's figure Live
Now: Krishna Paksha, lit fraction 42%.
How it works
Shukla Paksha runs from the new moon (elongation 0°) to the full moon (180°) and ends with Purnima. Krishna Paksha runs from the full moon back to the new moon and ends with Amavasya.
The lit fraction of the Moon's disc follows the elongation: it is (1 − cos elongation) ÷ 2, which is 0 at Amavasya and 1 at Purnima. The picture is drawn from that formula.
Tithis are counted within each paksha, so Krishna Ekadashi is the eleventh tithi of the dark half, fifteen tithis after Shukla Ekadashi.
In this site's engine
The paksha is Krishna when the tithi number is above 15 (elongation of 180° or more), otherwise Shukla.
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Traditions may vary by region and Panchang convention. Times are shown for the selected place, time zone and calculation profile.