There is a nice animation here that shows the rotation of the Earth, and the relative timescales of the Earth and Moon orbits. I hope this answers your question, and clarifies why the Moon rises and sets in different positions over the course of a month. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly or the Ask an Astronomer page with follow-up question! Does a sunset in the west and a moonrise in the east ever happen at exactly the same time?
Would the constellations we see from Earth look any different from other planets in our solar system? Is the Sun yellow or white?
The Moon is in the same place as the Sun at New Moon. As we have seen, the time at which the Moon crosses the southern sky gets later every day, by about 50 minutes. So the time at which the Moon rises and sets will also vary from day to day.
For example, when the Moon is heading northwards, it spends longer above the horizon each day. The time of moonrise gets later because the Moon crosses the sky later , but it tries to get earlier too because it is spending longer above the horizon.
The net result can be that the time of moonrise gets only a few minutes later from one day to the next. Conversely, when the Moon is heading southwards, the time of moonrise can change by well over an hour from one day to the next.
But we can still predict how high the Moon will cross the sky, how long it will spend above the horizon, and where it will rise and set, by comparing its behaviour with that of the Sun.
To see how this works for each month, choose one of the links to the left. The Moon doesn't follow the Sun's path exactly. To find out what difference that makes, try clicking here. Return to "What's in the Sky". What is the Moon doing?
The fairly simple answer The Moon rises and sets every day, like the Sun. At New Moon , the Moon rises in the morning; it's at its highest, in the south , in the middle of the day and it sets in the evening - just like the Sun. Of course this is academic, since we can't see the Moon when it's New!
Now lets get to the Moon. The time of day that the Moon rises or sets depends on its phase. This should be obvious when you remember that the phase of the Moon depends on the relative positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth. For example when the Moon is Full it is opposite the Earth from the Sun, so when the Sun sets, the Moon must rise and vice versa.
Here is a table summarizing that:. By local noon and local midnight I mean the points when the Sun crosses the meridian, and exactly 12 hours later. This can be different from the time on your watch because we define time zones which all use the local time at the centre of the zone. When the Moon is full however the pattern is inverted. To be more explicit again here this is for the Northern hemisphere, for the South exchange North for South :.
Karen was a graduate student at Cornell from She went on to work as a researcher in galaxy redshift surveys at Harvard University, and is now on the Faculty at the University of Portsmouth back in her home country of the UK. Her research lately has focused on using the morphology of galaxies to give clues to their formation and evolution. She is the Project Scientist for the Galaxy Zoo project. How does the position of Moonrise and Moonset change?
Here is a table summarizing that: Moon phase Moonrise Moonset New Sunrise Sunset 1st quarter Local noon Local midnight Full Sunset Sunrise 3rd quarter Local midnight Local noon By local noon and local midnight I mean the points when the Sun crosses the meridian, and exactly 12 hours later. This page was last updated on July 18, Similar Questions that might Interest You Beginner How does the location of sunrise and sunset change throughout the year? Random Question. Are there solar tides?
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