Just wanted to see if anyone had any information on the moon movements and phases for the past few weeks? Where would I begin to look for this information? Have done a search but I am probably using wrong search terms. I've come across a few articles stating that the moon has been acting erratically lately and that people have been noticing its setting and rising in locations in shouldn't be (friends send me this stuff). While this sounds completely silly, I have been unable to check for myself due to cloud coverage in MN for a while now and then last night could not find the moon after work (must be new moon time?). If this has already been covered here, could you post the link to the page? Sorry for any errors in typing, having to use phone for this.
I've come across a few articles stating that the moon has been acting erratically lately and that people have been noticing its setting and rising in locations in shouldn't be (friends send me this stuff).
No, there isn't anything wrong with the Moon, and I can guarantee that the articles you've read stating otherwise are not reputable sources.
If you want to track movements and phases of the Moon, you can load free planetarium software like Stellarium onto your computer, then compare what the software shows to what you see outside. I think you'll find that the Moon is right where it should be (once your cloud cover clears, that is ;) ).
If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, there are gadgets that track Moon phases and even stream views of the Sun from SOHO.
Don't you think that something as strange as an out-of-place Moon would make news somewhere other than a few crank websites? Something like that would be pretty difficult to hide.
Also I don`t think that the Moon could simply change its movements without being hit by something huge, like a planet. The Moon is there, and nothing uncommon is happening to it. The reason you can`t see the Moon is, as you said, that it`s New Moon Time.
Stardate has a day-by-day chart of the Moon, as well as a weekly look at key dates in the night sky, including the general Moon phases.
The U.S. Naval Observatory has a searchable table of moonrise and set times for the full year, adjustable to your city/state, and there's an even easier to read weekly version right about here.
If you're on a phone and it's an iPhone, there are plenty of apps that'll give you everything from simple times and directions to fully interactive sky maps, many of which are free and easy to use. Desktop software like Stellarium can do similar things, but I'd say your best bet is to go web-based first.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's an easier easy online resources that I've completely overlooked too, maybe someone else here has a few bookmarks for just this occasion.
Hi there Trista :)
funny you should mention the moon actually, the other night it was huge in the sky and it looked as if it was really close even closer than the super moon I didn't think anything of it at first, then a few nights later it rose and it was a deep orange colour nearly red, then last night a friend of mind sent me a text saying that when she looked at the moon last night it kinda flat at the top and looked a orange red colour, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the moon but it is acting rather strange at the minute, I have been asking a lot of questions on my astronomy forums, if anything comes up I will be sure to let you know.
Emmy.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
The Moon often looks red when low in the sky for the same reason that the rising and setting Sun looks red. This is because of local atmospheric conditions and is nothing to do with the Moon itself. I can assure you that the Moon is not acting strange.
Yeah i know the moon often looks red and such, but it is rising lower in the sky these days, I am not fueling anything by this, but if other people are starting to notice things maybe there is something going on? maybe not? I have no idea to be honest, I know the moon is in the middle of a pedagree so that is prolly why it looks closer, but being flat at the top and looking red while the rest of it is fine and normal? illusion maybe?
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
How can it rise lower in the sky? It rises from the horizon. I explained why it was flattened on the top. There is a good chart on moonconnection.com that shows the phases. If you look at the moon calendar, you will see how it looks from day to day. The gibbous phases alsways have a part that looks flattened. That's part of the normal moon phases. These aren't any change in the Moon, only in how much of it we see from our current angle. Besides appearing larger near the horizon, it also appears reddish.
The Moon goes through all its cycles once a month. Obviously there are the phases. Then there's perigee (closest point) and apogee (farthest point). Two weeks after a perigee, there is an apogee. You would be hard pressed to be able to tell whether the Moon is near perigee or apogee simply by naked eye observation.
The Moon also goes through a cycle of being low in the sky and high in the sky on a monthly basis. At the moment it is low in the sky as seen from the northern hemisphere. In two weeks time, it will be at its highest.
Thank you for clearing that up for me, I am going to pass this on to my friend of you don't mind?
Emmy.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
Hi Emmy,
Yes, please do pass it on to your friend. The more actual information people have, the less likely they will be to fall for this silliness.
emmylou, get stellarium, fill in your location and play with the time settings.
There is nothing odd going on, but if you are not experienced with looking at the sky, the locations might surprise you.
Hey Emmy,
The reason it looked flattened is because it is in its waning gibbous phase (following the full moon). That happens every 29.53 days. If you include the waxing gibbous phase (going up to the full moon), it happens twice every 29.53 days.
The Moon often looks reddish when it is low in the sky. Nothing about this is unusual and it isn't acting strangely. It is doing what it has always done. Now that you know that, you'll probably start looking at it more often and you'll see this occurring throughout your life,
Thank you both so much :)
I am sure it will calm my friend down too, I think with my own posts about the moon I am just really getting into astronomy and I am seeing things in a very different light to what I was a year or so ago, sorry if I have come across as a bit frantic *blushes*
Thanks again.
Emmy.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
Just wanted to see if anyone had any information on the moon movements and phases for the past few weeks?
http://www.stellarium.org/ which is free. Starry Night is also very good.
Yeh everyone was crazy about the Supermoon on march 19th it turned out to be very cool, i did not see it , cloudy weather.
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Become a debunker and help out those that are being fed up with lies spread by False scientists going after you'r money.
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They were definitely not reputable sources and as far as I could see, they had no data to support their theories. But, explaining why these moon anomalies are not happening to someone as irrational as me, is hard to do. I am still slowly learning I have to do my own research or find sites that show the truth of things based on scientific fact(like this site here) rather then opinions. :)
I will look into that planetarium software and see if I can't start charting the data for myself. Will also be looking into the SOHO site you mentioned. Once I'm able to see for myself, I bet my mind will be put at ease.
As far as using the phone, it is usually my only source of internet. But, no iPhone. I would bet though the Android market would have an app for this as well. Thanks for bringing that up. I never thought to look for an app!
Thank you for your help everyone!
Just found out (based on the awesome websites you provided) its not new moon time. Just looked too early (10:30). Will be staying up until 12:30 tonight just to get a look to put my mind at ease. I guess in 22 years of life, I'm too dumb to realize the moon sets and rises at different times throughout the year. :-)
As seen from Minnesota, the Moon is quite low in the sky at the moment, rising in the southeast and setting in the southwest and not above the horizon for many hours, so that might explain why you haven't seen it for a few days. Tonight, you will find it some distance to the left of the bright red star Antares, in exactly the position it should be. Its movement is carefully tracked with positional errors smaller than you would notice with the naked eye.
These stories about the Moon being out of position are either deliberate lies from conspiracy idiots or they result from people saying things like "The Moon looked a bit too far to the left as seen from my kitchen window. I'm sure it's never been that far over before." All this proves is that they never look at the sky.
Yes, the moonrise time changes from one day to the next. It's somewhere around 40 minutes later each night. That time varies, but the moon rise and set calendar gives you the time for each night in your location.
You aren't dumb for not being aware of that. Many people just don't pay that much attention to the sky.
Finally was able to see the moon last night for the first time in a couple weeks. Was sitting out by the fire with hubby and we saw it rise at around 1245(or around that time). Like bikenbeer said, rose in the low SE and set in the low SW. Everything is looking normal!
In Denmark around 19th of April, the moon was really beautiful here. At moonrise, it was all red, and really close, so it was huge too! When it started rising higher it was still bigger then usual, but i know for a fact, that it was at the same place, it has always been. (im a sucker for watching the moon, whenever i get the chance.)
Does anyone have a report on this?
- “I fear one day I'll meet God, he'll sneeze and I won't know what to say.”
The Moon was at perigee on the 17th, so it would have still been fairly close to it on the 19th. The full moon was very on the 18th, so it would have still appeared as full on the 19th. Since it was very near full and pretty close to perigee, it would appear a little larger than usual. Here is a table of apogee/perigee and full/new Moon for 2011.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html
At moonrise, the light has to travel through a lot more atmosphere than when it is above us. The blue light is scattered more, while the red light reaches us, causing the Moon to appear red.
funny the way the mind works sometimes :( your mind set can be terrible at times ugh :/ thank fully I am keeping kinda steady :D
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
Maybe you can get your friend to come here and read through this thread. The Moon is behaving as it always has. She should go to some credible sites that give facts about the Moon and do some reading.
Thanks Alene :)
My drove with my mom outside town to see the moon closer, the woods was filled with people, around 11 PM! But i can understand that, the moon was really beautiful. Wasnt really scared, more happy that i got to see it like that.
- “I fear one day I'll meet God, he'll sneeze and I won't know what to say.”
It's speculated that it's not that the MOON is doing anything different, it's that the earth is rocking further and further on it's axis each season ..
It's speculated that it's not that the MOON is doing anything different, it's that the earth is rocking further and further on it's axis each season ..
Er, yeah, speculated by whom? Nothing the earth is doing is causing you to see the Moon in any significantly different place. Precession occurs very slowly, over about 26,000 years. You aren't going to notice from year to year.
Of course, the Earth rocking further and further would alter all the calculations for Moonrise and set times, even sunrise and sunset, which we of course don't see.
it's that the earth is rocking further and further on it's axis each season
No it isn't. The tilt of the Earth's axis is getting less, by 0.47 arcseconds per year (equivalent to about 15 metres on its surface). This is the amount by which the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are moving closer to the equator and the Arctic and Antarctic circles are moving closer to the poles.
The resulting displacement of any celestial object is far too small to be discerned with the naked eye, even over a lifetime.
One last question on the moon. I was having a party this weekend and noticed the moon more centered in the middle of the sky than last month(was actually way more north than last month). My question is, does the moon move about the sky every cycle? Like in the south for one moon, and in the north the next? Again, I researched this but not too good with the internet. I believe deep down everything is a hoax, but the people I love most try to make me doubt. I just want these people and my family to stop scaring me! Very thankful you guys are here!
Hi Trista,
The Moon's position changes both with the season and with the lunar cycle. We are in the waxing crescent phase right now and it is spring. That means the Moon will be in a more northerly position than it was during the new Moon, full Moon, and especially the third quarter. It is normal.
Here is a chart showing the realtive position by season and phase:
Season Postion of Moon rise/set
Phase: New Moon 1st Qtr Full Moon 3rd Qtr
Winter SE/SW East/West NE/NW East/West
Spring East/West NE/NW East/West SE/SW
Summer NE/NW East/West SE/SW East/West
Autumn East/West SE/SW East/West NE/NW
Like the Sunrise/set positions, the amount of variation depends on your lattitude.
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=642
This is a link to a moon phase calendar:
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
One last question on the moon. I was having a party this weekend and noticed the moon more centered in the middle of the sky than last month(was actually way more north than last month). My question is, does the moon move about the sky every cycle? Like in the south for one moon, and in the north the next?
Moon's positions change according to its cycles. It's normal.
Hi Trista
Try looking at it this way. A first quarter moon (half moon, visible in the evening) is illuminated that way because it is a right angle, 90° away from the sun. That's a quarter of the way round the sky. That means that the sun will be in the same part of the sky three months later. So if you see a first quarter moon in March or April, it will be high in the sky because it occupies the position where the sun will be in June or July.
Similarly, the full moon is opposite the sun. Therefore a full moon in the summer will be low down because it occupies the spot where the sun is found in winter. And vice-versa, a winter full moon will pass high overhead.
You can get a good idea of where the moon ought to be at any particular phase at any season of the year by thinking about it this way.
I have a moon phase calander in my school , every class has it
No man knows the day nor the hour when the world will end.
Become a debunker and help out those that are being fed up with lies spread by False scientists going after you'r money.
Practice what you want to and dont give up on you'r dreams my dream is to become a basketball player 'NBA'
I'm glad your school has them. I gave Trista the link to the moon phase calendar so she could compare the current Moon phase with the moonrise/set postion table and see that the Moon would indeed be further to the north.