Is the moon 2 B in A consistent location at night? It's been showing up all over. What site shows moon map?

Question

I am an educated person, but have forgotten some simple facts over the years. It seems the moon is inconsistent in where I see it each night. Is this normal? Earth rotates on it's axis (24 hrs) while revolving around the sun (365 days); the moon is our satellite. Does it rotate on an axis? Revolve around the earth? I have forgotten all this. Why does it seem like the moon is never in the same place each night? Finally what site maps the moon (live) so I can use my telescope?

Answer 1

One site you might want to try is: http://www.heavens-above.com

You'll have to register to the site, a very painless process, but once you do, you can click on the "Whole sky chart" link to find the moon, the planets, or many visible stars. Though it defaults to the current date and time, you can change either to see what the sky will look like then.

As for your other questions, the moon rotates over the same period as its revolution, which is why the same side always faces Earth. The reason it's not in the same place each night is because of the Earth's rotation and revolution (in addition to the moon's revolution). If you were to "map" where the moon is at the same time each day (say, for example, 10:00pm), you'll find it "moves" in the sky by about 13° each day.

[Edited to comment]
Very cool site, braxton paul!

Answer 2

Feel free to email me anytime with these types of questions. I'm a physics teacher and an amateur astronomer in Northwest Ohio.
[e-mail]

The moon revolves around the Earth. This takes place in the course of roughly 27 - 28 days. The reason you are seeing the moon in a different spot every night is that it is in its monthly trek around the earth. Watch it for a few months. You'll notice that in about a month it will be in the same spot of the sky you see it in tonight. Roughly. There are other things going on with its orbit that complicate it a bit, but we'll ignore that for now.
As you watch it night to night, you'll notice that it goes through phases. Sometimes it's full. Sometimes half of it is lit up. Other times it's a crescent or can't be seen at all. This isn't random, it's entirely linked to where the moon is in its orbit around the earth. It's going through a cycle of phases through the month. The cycle goes like this:
new moon
waxing crescent
first quarter
waxing gibbous
full moon
waning gibbous
third quarter
waning crescent
new moon (again.....and the cycle repeats itself all over)

Again, observe this for a couple of months. It really is a beautiful phenomenon and you can learn a lot about how this astronomical event goes on just by watching. After weeks and after months you should have lots more questions to email me about.

I almost forgot!!! The moon rotates on its axis also. But....it rotates on its axis exactly once every time it revolves around the Earth once. So......the same side is always facing us! The first time the moon's far side was seen was when the Russian probe Luna 3 first sent back pictures. The only people who have seen it live are the Apollo astronauts whose missions either took them around the moon, to the moon, or both.

Any introductory astronomy or sky watch book should have nice maps of the moon's surface. - Kevin Blake

Answer 3

Very good Java applet at this website. Set your personal location and how fast you want the simulation to run ==>

http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/horizon.html

Answer 4

Here is what you are looking for from the University of Hawaii as well as NASA.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/ASTR110L_S03/lunarmotion.html

http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Smoon.htm