Wednesday, 4 December 2024

moon behaviour - new moon sets near sunrise, new moon rises near sunrise

We had some more astronomy chats after Scouts :) crescent moon appears as boat at equator, angle of moon changes depending on your latitude, appears upside down in southern hemisphere. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/upside-down.html AND this Dec 15th actually the moon is full and rises and sets the furthest north in 18.6 year cycle called a "major lunar standstill" https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/lunar-standstill-2024-2025 from Dublin it will set 9:23am at 322 degrees NW and rise 15:30 38 degrees NE https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/ireland/dublin?month=12 The sun is only getting up to 14 degrees of altitude height at noon these days and rises/sets at 40 degrees south of E/W, compare with altitude of 60 degrees in june and rise/set 43 degrees North of East/West https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin And full moons always set close to sunrise time, whereas new moons rise close to sunrise time e.g. new moon 30th Dec rises 9:06am sets 15:06 BUT on this day reaches only 7 degrees of altitude so would be really difficult to see it even if it was not a new moon! https://www.space.com/17561-new-moon-explained-lunar-phases.html