How is the moon always out at night?

Question

How come (when theres no clouds) you can always see the moon at night? Does it orbit at the same speed we rotate? Is it never on the other side of the earth? does it always stay on my side? does it always stay the furthest side from the sun? does australia never see the moon at night? someone tell me lol i cant figure it out!

Answer 1

Here's what I want you you to do:

Go to this website and track the phases of the Moon and find out when the New Moon occurs.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html

The very next night, (when the Moon is just a thin crescent right after Sunset), make a mental note of how high the Moon is on the horizon compared to the Sun. For example, while holding your hand out at arm's length, how many "fingers" seperate the horizon line from the crescent of the Moon?

The next night, go out and measure again. It will be about 15 degrees higher on the horizon compared to the setting Sun.

The next night, it will be even higher. This is due to the orbit of the Moon around us. It takes slightly more than 27 days to orbit the Earth. (27.3 days)

When the Moon is full, the Sun and Moon rise on exact opposite horizons. The next night (after a "Full" Moon occurs), the Moon won't rise until the Sun is well below the horizon because you can only have a "Full" Moon when they are on opposite sides of the sky. Basically, the Moon goes across the sky in the opposite direction relative to the Sun.

To answer your other questions:
2) The Moon orbits a lot slower than the Earth turns. We rotate in 23 hrs 56 min, while the Moon rotates once every 27.3 days. That's exactly the Moon's orbital period, so the same side is always facing us, we just can't see it. Here's what Wikipedia says:

"The Moon makes one complete orbit about the Earth every 27.3 days, and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth-Moon-Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases that repeat every 29.5 days."

3) When it is on the opposide side of the Earth from the Sun, we have a Full Moon because Sunlight is reflecting back towards the Earth. When the Moon is between the Sun and Earth, we have a New Moon because all of the light is being reflected back towards the Sun. The Moon is still there, we just can't see it...

4) It doesn't stay on "your" side because it's orbiting the Earth.

5) It alternates being on the "furthest" side from the Sun (when we can see it), to the "closest" side from the Sun (when we can't).

6) Australia sees the same phases as we do, but the Moon's position in the sky is different. Right now the Northern half of the Earth is pointing towards the Moon more than the Southern half is, so our Moon appears high in the sky (almost straight up) while the Sun appears pretty low. In Australia the Moon is appearing lower in the sky while the Sun is appearing higher than it is here.

Happy stargazing!
Mack

Answer 2

The answer is: it depends on its phase!
When the moon is 'new' it is (effectively) in front of the sun, and so it rises and sets pretty much at the same time as the sun.
A couple of days after new moon, try and look for it in the west straight after sunset, it will be a thin crescent, and then it will set.
A couple of weeks after new it is full, which means now it is (effectively) directly opposite the sun and so it now rises as the sun sets and sets when the sun rises, i.e. it's up all night.
When the moon gets near to new again, it now rises in the east before the sun and sets in the afternoon.
So, the moon is up at all hours of the day, depending on the phase, we just notice it more at night. And this is true for the whole planet!
Just to blow your mind though, because we always see the same side of the moon from Earth, this means that if you were standing on the surface of the moon, the Earth would NOT move in your sky, just sit there spinning on its axis!
Find out more at http://lovethenightsky.com/how-to-observe-the-moon/
Cheers
Adam.

Answer 3

The moon can sometimes be seen during the day. The shapes of the moon tht you see varying are caused by the earth getting in the way of the suns light that lights he moon. You do not see it during the day very much due to it not being very bright.

Answer 4

Where did you go to school? Everybody knows that the moon is the back side of the Sun. When you see the moon during the day, you are actually seeing a double reflection of the back side of the Sun (the Moon) which is reflected off the interior surface of the "Firmament" (Where God keeps the water he used for Noah's flood) it is then re-reflected to the opposite interior side of the Firmament where it appears normal in the sky. I hope this explains it for you.

Answer 5

The moon is not always out at night. Actually, half of the time it is out during the day.

Answer 6

New moon = no moon.

It's not out every single night at all.

It orbits in one month, we rotate every 24 hours. Remember, our night (with the moon in the sky) is Australia's day (when the moon isn't "out" over here... where do you think it is?)

Answer 7

hi

Answer 8

If the sun was out at night, then it would be day.