How come I can see the moon during the day....?

Question

I can see the moon.. it is night in China.. can they see the moon too??

this sounds a tad elementary but my AP Astronomy was right after lunch in High School.. So I slept through most of the semester..

Answer 1

If you're in the United States, you can barely ever see the Moon at the same time as someone in China, because you are on opposite sides of the world, and the Moon can only be on one side of the Earth at a time. It may be very briefly visible to both of you just as it sets from your perspective, because it rises in China, and vice versa. If the Moon is still high in the sky in the US, it hasn't yet risen in China, regardless of what time it is. The Moon is in the sky for twelve hours, give or take, and the difference in times for the rising of the moon is about the same as the difference in time zones between two locations. For example, it's three hours earlier in California than in New York, so the Moon rises three hours later in California than in New York.

You can sometimes see the Moon during the day because the sunlight that reflects off the Moon is bright enough that it can be seen in contrast to the diffuse sky radiation. So if the Moon is in the sky during the day, it can generally be seen.

The vast majority of other objects in the night sky are not brighter than the diffuse sky radiation, so they cannot be seen during the day even if they are located above your position on Earth. There are rare exceptions, including supernovae (averaging a few per millenium), great comets (perhaps one per decade), and the planet Venus (routinely visible in the morning or evening sky when twilight is still relatively bright).

Answer 2

Because it's brighter than the daytime sky, the vast majority of the time. It's above the horizon at the same time as the Sun 50% of the time, over the course of each phase cycle. So really, the only reasons why you wouldn't would be 1. It's very close to aNew Moon, and the glare of the Sun would wash it out, 2. It is a Full moon, so it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise, therefore not being in the sky during the daytime 3. It is cloudy 4. You don't look "up" in the daytime very often. My bet is number four.

Answer 3

I'd just add to DavidK93's excellent answer that the Moon is _often_ visible in the daylight sky, roughly half the time in fact. That's because the Moon is above our horizon on average 12 hours out of every 24, and a good portion of those hours are daylight. The only reason people don't see it more often is that they aren't looking for it...it's there and readily visible, if you bother to look.

Answer 4

The Moon is often visible during daylight, because it is bright enough to see in a daytime sky. It isn't always up, but when it is up, it can be seen, day or night. There are stars up in the daytime too, but they aren't bright enough to see. But the Moon is not visible in the sky of China at the same moment is is in the American sky, because America is on the other side of the Earth. First it is visible in America, then the Earth rotates around half a day, carrying America to the opposite side of the globe from the Moon and then it is visible in China. After another half day rotation, China is carried to the side of the globe away from the Moon and America is carried back the the side near the Moon. And the Moon orbits the Earth once a month, so one day a month the Moon is on the same side of the globe as the Sun but so close to the Sun that you can't see it. After a week, the Moon is a quarter of the way around its orbit, 90 degrees from the Sun. It is a half Moon, also called first quarter Moon. This Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight, so you can see in in daylight after noon. After another week is is half way around, is a full Moon, and rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. It cannot be seen in daylight. Another quarter of the way around in the 3rd week is another half Moon, called 3rd quarter. It rises at midnight and sets at noon, so it can be seen in daylight in the morning. And another week completes a month, back to a new Moon, so close to the Sun and showing its dark side toward Earth so we can't see it.

Answer 5

The moon takes about 28 days to orbit the earth. That means that the earth turns on its axis 28 times for the moon to orbit around it once. Between new moon and full moon, the moon is visible more at night, and between full moon and new moon, the moon is visible more during the day.
If the moon is visible in the sky where you are during the day then it will also be visible from China during their day.

Answer 6

The rotation of the Earth has nothing to do with the orbital position of the moon. The moon may or may not be visible from a given point on Earth at any time of the day or night.
If you are seeing it in the U.S. in the daytime while it's night in China they can see no moon at that time, it is below the horizon to them. Give it a few hours and the moon will move into their visual range or maybe it was just moving out of their visual range.

Answer 7

There is a bunch of stuff visible during the day. Since it is nearly the same brightness as the sky, it doesn't stick out the way it does at night against black. The sky is about 2nd magnitude brightness, so all the planets out to Uranus are visible against the sky and the 16 brightest stars are visible also.

I have a computer driven telescope that I use occasionally to look at planets during the day.