The Moon in January
The Moon in February
The Moon in March
The Moon in April
The
Moon in May
The Moon in June
The Moon in July
The Moon in August
The Moon in September
The Moon in October
The Moon in November
The Moon in December
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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 October.
At New Moon, the Moon behaves like the Sun in October. It's
heading southwards, so it spends less time above the horizon every
day. The time of moonrise still gets later every day; but the time of
moonset doesn't change much from one night to the next. So we have to
wait several days before we can see the crescent Moon after sunset.
The crescent Moon behaves like the Sun in November and
December, and the First-Quarter Moon behaves like the Sun in January
(3 months forward from October). Throughout this period, the Moon
only spends a few hours each day above the horizon, rising in the
south-east and setting in the south-west.
The waxing gibbous
Moon behaves like the Sun in February and March, and the Full Moon
behaves like the Sun in April (opposite to the October Sun). It's now
moving northwards, so it spends longer above the horizon every day.
The time of moonrise doesn't change much from one night to the next.
The waning gibbous Moon behaves like the Sun in May and June,
and the Last-Quarter Moon behaves like the Sun in July (3 months
before October). Around these phases, the Moon is above the horizon
for many hours of each day, rising in the north-east and setting in
the north-west.
The waning "crescent" Moon behaves
like the Sun in August; it's beginning to move southwards again, and
getting harder to see. But it's still further north than the Sun is,
so we can expect to see it in the sky at dawn almost all the way up
to New Moon.
On any date, if you know how many
days it is since New Moon:
multiply that by twelve, and add it to the present date, to find out
roughly where the Moon will be in its cycle.
However, the Moon doesn't follow the
Sun's path exactly. To find out what
difference that makes, try clicking here.
Return to
"What is the Moon doing?"
Return to
"What's in the Sky"
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