Why is the Moon smiling????

[gita]

Thanks majorion for the link. I just checked it out and am finding it somewhat difficult to navigate - I expect I'll be spending sometime there.

[Majorion]

Originally Posted by gita

I just checked it out and am finding it somewhat difficult to navigateThanks majorion for the link.

Example: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseo...34&frame=20426

-Click "request".
-Wait 5 minutes.
-"Save as" the link at the top.

These are huge full color images, but you will need to adjust the levels with software like photoscape or gimp.

The usual result

Or, super color

[gita]

Originally Posted by Majorion

Example: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseo...34&frame=20426

-Click "request".
-Wait 5 minutes.
-"Save as" the link at the top.

These are huge full color images, but you will need to adjust the levels with software like photoscape or gimp.

The usual result

Or, super color

Excellent - Many thanks. x

[Hypnotize]

I saw this last night(wednesday)during my walk home and it amazed me, I'm in Oregon and I have never seen the moon like that before. It looked really cool over the pacific.

[5thElement]

Also speaking from the Northern Hemishpere - NW US - can confirm that the moon has looked like it was smiling for the past 2 nights. Visible in the Western sky right after dusk.
Shoud it be in the West at dusk this time of year? Seemed odd to me but maybe it was the 'smile" that threw me off

El

[Jack]

Just took a look outside and yeah, the moons just like that picture you posted viking. I noticed it first about a week ago and thought wtf

Its absolutely amazing that "noones noticed" ... Its the bloody moon!! How can people be so unaware of the environment in which they live.

[mudra]

The moon is smiling here in Belgium too tonight .
This phenomena of a smiling moon was reported on december 2008 in Thailand as well:



And here is a picture of a moon crescent taken later on in 2008 with an even lower slant that the one I see in tonight's sky.



Love Always
mudra

[lucrum]

Speaking of the moon,

We had one night here where the moon was so bright it lit up everything outside to the extent it could look like early morning. Could even see the blue color of the sky.

I don't know how abnormal that is, but it struck me now that the moon was almost directly above us at the time (here in norway) which from what I can gather would mean that in order for it to be a full moon, which it was, the sun would have to partially or fully shine through the earth?

If someone have an answer to me on how this happens, feel free!

Can't see the current moon around here...snowing too much...

[lucrum]

The ecliptic is tilted, but it never flips over itself, so the only time the sun and moon are at the same azmuth is during a new moon. 6 hours away just means they are 90 degrees apart in azmuth and that is only loosely connected to when they will rise or set. What it does mean is that if the sun is due west right now, the moon is due south right now and 6 hours from now, the sun will be due north and the moon due west. But depending on the tilt of the ecliptic for your season and location, the sun, the moon, both, or neither may be up at either of those times.

For example, first quarter is this Saturday. 3 hours or so after sunset (9:35), the moon is at an azmuth of 251 degrees and the sun at 294. The sun and moon both trace out the entire azmuth circle in a day, with the sun chasing the moon for half the month and speeding away for the other half.

What people are noting is the tilt of the ecliptic. Once a day in the middle latitudes, the ecliptic is near vertical on each side of the sky, with the times dependent on the season. So when the moon is on it in that part of the sky at that time, it is laying on its side. And this can happen in any phase and happens every month at a different time and in a different phase. Here's the view last night (ecliptic near vertical) and August 5 (nowhere close to vertical), both times a little less than 5 days past new.

Got this from a forum I found searching the subject.
http://www.physicsforums.com/archive.../t-203670.html

I guess it makes sense what is said there, since the sun kinda rotates clockwise over the sky here, it will eventually shine at the moon from "below" the earth compared to us in the north. Therefore, when the conditions are right the moon will appear horizontal.

It's only really visible at new moon and can happen at different times each time.

[Humble Janitor]

The moon knows what's up and for that, it smiles at us.