The Sun and The Moon are the two sources that stay and can be visible for every 12 hours a day. Sometimes, we spot the Moon during day time. Isn’t it? The Moon being visible during daytime is quite a normal sight for many of us. Have you ever thought why the moon is visible sometimes during the daytime?
Few people have a common misconception that the moon is exactly opposite to the Sun in the sky.
The actual reason is that the moon will come to the exact opposite position to the sun only once in the whole lunar month and that is on the full moon. It is exactly 180 degrees opposite to the sun. The rest of the month it can be anywhere ranging from 0 to 180 degrees away.
There are few possibilities for the moon to be visible during daytime. One such possibility is that “the light emitting out of the moon should be strong enough or bright enough that it penetrates through the scattered blue light of the sky.” We can also see Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in daylight with the help of a telescope.
Another possibility that the moon is visible in the sky during daytime is that it needs to be above the horizon. “On average, the moon is above the horizon for about 12 hours a day. Some of those 12 hours are bound to coincide with the sun’s thus producing a daytime moon.”
Some Facts About The Earth’s Moon:
- After keen observation, it has been found that the Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from our planet Earth every year. It is estimated that it will continue to do so for the next 50 billion years or so. By the time this happens, the Moon will be taking for about 47 days to rotate around the Earth instead of the current 27.3 days.
- The Moon produces no light of its own like the Sun does. Instead, we see the Moon just because of the Sun’s light that the moon reflects back to our eyes.
- In reality, both sides of the Moon receives the same amount of sunlight however only one face of the Moon is ever seen from the Earth. This is because the Moon rotates around on its own axis at exactly the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, which in turn means that the same side is always facing the Earth. The side facing away from Earth has only been seen by the human eye provided he or she is traveling in a spacecraft.
- The Moon reflects so much of the Sun’s light that it becomes the second brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Although it’s not even close to as bright as the Sun, the Moon is still 100,000 times brighter than the next possible brightest night-time star.