How can everyone see the moon

The moon is above the horizon 12 hours per 24 hours a day because of the earth and moon rotation. The 12 hours never coincide fully with nightfall; the window for observing the moon is around 6 hours per night.

However, I will cover some of the main reasons we may not see the moon tonight. A new moon is hard to see even if you have a telescope to view the moon. An obstacle in the way of your view of the moon so you cant see it in the sky. Also, the moon is not above the horizon on the given night you are observing. The next time you are gazing into the night sky with your telescope, you will know that someone on the other side of the world can also see what you are seeing.

The moon is our closest neighbor, and there are many other questions we have answered and unanswered. Suppose you are looking for a challenge with your telescope; how about searching out the lunar All moonlight is reflected sunlight. The bright part of the Moon is experiencing daytime. The Moon is a natural satellite , or a space object that orbits around something else. In general, a moon is a natural satellite of a planet, and a planet is a special kind of natural satellite that orbits a star and also meets other conditions.

Learn more: What makes a planet a planet? The leading theory is that a Mars-sized object collided with Earth billions of years ago, and debris from this collision eventually formed the Moon.

Here is an animation that shows what this might have looked like:. Animation showing the Moon's early history. For more information, visit The Moon In Depth web page.

The Moon does have gravity. Earth would be a very different world if it had no Moon. Some of your frequently asked Moon questions, answered. Does the Moon spin on its axis? Each day, the Moon rises about 50 minutes later than it did the day before. When the Sun rises in the early morning, the Full Moon sets. This is the only phase when the Moon is in the sky all night.

The Moon starts to fade again. When it rises at midnight, only the right half of the Moon is lit up, which we call Last Quarter. It moves closer to the Sun each day, turning back to a crescent and fading away until it disappears. Hawaiian people have a special name for every day of the lunar month. You can learn their song to help you remember!

Read more: Curious Kids: what started the Big Bang? Hello, curious kids! Since those 12 hours almost never coincide with the roughly 12 hours of daylight in every 24 hours, the possible window for observing the moon in daylight averages about 6 hours a day. The moon is visible in daylight nearly every day, the exceptions being close to new moon, when the moon is too close to the sun to be visible, and close to full moon when it is only visible at night.

The best times in the month to see the moon in daylight are close to first and last quarter, when the moon is 90 degrees away from the sun in the sky. That's the situation this week. Last quarter is on Saturday, Sept. If we set Starry Night software to that date, and its location to New York, we see that the moon rises at p.