What is the Moon doing in June?
The Moon in June
In general, we can tell what the Moon will look like, when it will be visible, and in what direction to look for it, just by working out how many days it is since New Moon. The details are here.
But we can predict this more accurately by noticing that the Moon mimics, every month, the way the Sun behaves over the course of a whole year.
Here is a schematic diagram of how the Moon behaves in June.
Immediately after New Moon, the crescent Moon behaves like the Sun in late summer. At first it is rising in the north-east and setting in the north-west, but soon it begins to move south again. As it reaches First Quarter and continues to wax gibbous, it rises much later each day, and much further to the right. The time of moonset stays roughly constant, shortly after midnight, but the position shifts to the left.
At Full, the Moon is well south, like the Sun in midwinter; it rises in the south-east and sets in the south-west.
But the Moon soon starts to move northwards again, as it wanes towards Last Quarter. It continues to rise shortly after midnight, and the position of moonrise shifts to the left again. But it is still south of the Sun, so it will be hard to see the waning crescent at dawn.
However, the Moon doesn't follow the
Sun's path exactly. To find out what
difference that makes, try clicking here.