• Question: why does the moon sometimes come out during the day

    Asked by DanielleMelissaMaryam to Uday, NULL, Pierre, Irene, Chloe on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Uday Bangavadi

      Uday Bangavadi answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      The moon is natural satellite which reflects sun light to earth. And also it is close to earth. During beginning of lunar cycle moon gets close to the sun and reflects more light hence the visibility increases during day time.

    • Photo: Irene Regan

      Irene Regan answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Great Q?

      As it turns out, whether or not we can see the moon during the day depends on the brightness of its light—which is really just the sun’s light reflecting off of the moon’s surface—and the earth’s rotation.

      In order for the moon to be visible in the sky, it needs to be above the horizon.
      On average, the moon is above the horizon for 12 hours a day. Some of those 12 hours are bound to coincide with the sun’s—producing a daytime moon. Which, despite how exciting it can be to see, isn’t that rare.
      In fact, the moon is visible during the day nearly every day, except for when it’s close to a new moon or is a full moon.

    • Photo: Pierre Casaubielh

      Pierre Casaubielh answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      The light coming from the Sun, reflects on the surface of the moon; its reflected light is then sent to us… we won’t be able to see the moon if it is close to the Earth-Sun path (the arrangement would be: Earth – Moon – Sun) … because the light from the sun is very strong; however we would be able to observe it if the moon is a bit farer (with an arrangement Moon – Earth – Sun)

    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Irene and Uday have already answered this so I’d just like to follow on from the answer Irene gave and explain why we don’t see the moon during a new moon.

      On the day of new moon, the moon rises when the sun rises. It sets when the sun sets. It crosses the sky with the sun during the day and because of this the light isn’t reflected because it is the far side of the moon (the side facing away from us) that is getting the light at that time.

    • Photo: NULL

      NULL answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Great question, and the others have given good answers.

      It is out during the day a lot, but we can’t always see it. The time between moonrise and moonset is nearly 25 hours, so it’s in the sky a little longer than the sun is, on average!

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