Why does the moon always appear in the sky?

Question

Hi folks firstly this isnt for me as i have some grasp of astronomy myself but a fried of mine asked

"why does the moon always seemed to appear in the sky nearly ever night shouldnt it sometimes be on the other side of the planet"

now i couldnt word it correctly but i thought it had something to do with 'tidal locking' i know only one side of the moon always faces us but was curious how to explain it to my friend (who's generall knowledge is shocking! XD

cheers folks!

hi again guys can i just say that i am aware that the moon isnt always in the sky myself and that it can appear during the day

i was trying to explain it in laymans terms for my friend

cheers :D

Answer 1

Most of these answers are wrong, partly because your question makes a wrong assumption. The Moon is _not_ always in the sky, Like everything else in the sky, it's visible roughly 12 hours out of each 24 hour day, more or less depending on how far north or south of the celestial equator it is. It can be visible at any time of the day or night, since it can be anywhere in its orbit around the Earth, but, because of the Earth's daily rotation it rises roughly in the east once every 24 hours, and sets roughly in the west roughly 12 hours later.

For example, here in southern Canada where I live, the Moon rose at 3:09 a.m. EDT, about two and a half hours before the Sun. It will cross the meridian at 10:51 a.m. and will set at 6:44 p.m. So it will actually be in the sky for over 15 hours today. A couple of weeks from now, when it's in a different part of the sky, it will only be in the sky 7 hours. Over the month, this averages out to 12 hours a day, but the Moon is _not_ in the sky an average of 12 hours a day.

Tidal locking explains why the Moon always keeps one face turned towwards us, but has nothing to do with where the Moon is in our sky.

Answer 2

Yes, you are absolutely right. Due to the scattering of sunlight by the earth's atmosphere only sky appears blue, since there is no atmosphere in the moon, no scattering takes place so the sky appears dark all the time either day or night. For reference you can also see the NCERT reader (CBSE) of Std X(2007-08 or2008-09) Chapter-Human Eye and the Colorful World.

Answer 3

What Geoff G. said is correct. The rest are mostly wrong. The moon can often be seen in full daylight, just as often, in fact, as it can be seen at night. It's just that most people don't usually look up at the sky during the day, because they're so used to there being nothing much to see then. Since the earth rotates on its axis once per day, the moon is seen everywhere on earth for part of every clear day/night. When you see it at night, the other side of the world sees it during the day, and vice versa.

Answer 4

I live on latitude 40 degrees North. For me, the moon is in the sky each day anywhere from 8 hours 40 minutes, to 16 hours 14 minutes. Average is about 12 hours 27 minutes.

Answer 5

Sorry, I had to laugh at the question (before I clicked onto it) I was coming up with an answer like "Where else would you expect it to be, in your bowl of soup"

But remember, the moon goes through stages from full moon to new moon then back again. Well when its a New Moon somewhere else, the moon will be here because well... it needs to be somewhere. The same happens when we have a new moon.

Well, thats what I thought anyway... might be wrong, as this was only logical thinking on my behalf

Answer 6

The moon doesn't always appear in the sky. The earth is revolving underneath it, and spends half the time on the other side of the planet. It always comes up once a day!

Answer 7

The Moon doesn't always appear in the night sky. Frequently it's on the horizon (just barely) at sunrise or sunset, and it's frequently visible in the daytime sky towards the horizon.

Doug

Answer 8

Where else you want it to appear?

What you call as sky is infect an atmospheric belt tied to earth , the moon does 't appear in this area, it has fixed trajectory ( path ) much above it, app 200,000 Kms away from earth.Due to earth's rotation only one side of it faces you and with marginal time lag it comes and goes off.It will appear where it is but if you want to change its position , you better change your viewing position from one hemisphere to another.

It is doing its duty on its selected path, it has no problem to remain where it is, but unfortunately it appears to be visible in our atmosphere.

You have to bear with it, it will always seem to be in the "sky" and will continue till you have day and night , winter and summer, spring and autumn, rain and rainbow. If you can stop these natural phenomenons I am sure the moon will never appear in the sky because by that time you and all other inhabitants on this planet called earth, will perish.

Answer 9

If you are near a very smooth lagoon then the moon can sometimes appear in the water,so there.

Answer 10

the moon is generally there, but the earth rotates......why is the sun always there? what is tidal locking? I know that the moon has a effect on the tides.