Why Does the Moon Appear in the Daytime?
Answers
Answer:
The moon does not produce its own light. We can only see the moon when light coming from the sun is reflected off of its surface. This means that whenever the moon reflects the sun's rays we can see it–even in the day time.
The visibility of the moon during the daytime also depends on its angle and its distance from Earth. When the moon and sun are on the same side of Earth, the moon is visible during the day; when the moon and sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, the moon is not visible during the day, as the Earth is blocking sunlight from reaching the moon's surface.
The reason we can see the moon and not stars during the day is because the sunlight reflected off of the the moon makes it 100,000 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky.
Answer:
Explanation:
Any clear morning this week around 10 a.m. you can see the moon riding high in the western sky. Many people are surprised to see the moon in full daylight, yet it is a completely normal occurrence.
A very common misconception in astronomy is that the moon is directly opposite the sun in the sky. In fact, the moon is only in this position for a single instant in the whole lunar month: the exact time of full moon, when it is 180 degrees away from the sun. The rest of the month it can be anywhere from 0 to180 degrees away and, at least in theory, visible in the daytime sky.
At full moon, the moon is exactly opposite the sun. This means that the moon rises just as the sun is setting, and sets just as the sun is rising. This is also the only night in the month when a lunar eclipse can happen. Even so, eclipses normally happen only one full moon out of every six; the other times the Earth's shadow is either too high or too low to touch the moon.
Two things contribute to the moon being visible in daylight. First, it is bright enough that its light penetrates the scattered blue light of the sky. If you're looking at exactly the right spot with a telescope, you can also see the planets Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in daylight, plus a few of the brightest stars (though few casual observers can actually pull this off). Secondly, the moon must be high enough in the sky to be visible.