Moonset Tonight (2024)

FAQs

Why is the moon not visible tonight? ›

Why Is the New Moon Invisible? The new Moon is invisible because it is approximately between Earth and the Sun, so the dark half of the Moon faces us, and the sunlit half faces the Sun.

When the Moon is full, it tends to be overly bright as well as flat and one-dimensional in appearance. In contrast, around the several-day interval when the Moon is around first or last quarter phase is when we get the best views of the lunar landscape right along the sunrise-sunset line, or terminator.

The eight lunar phases are, in order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent. The cycle repeats once a month (every 29.5 days).

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It goes around the Earth at a distance of about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers). The Earth and Moon are tidally locked. Their rotations are so in sync we only see one side of the Moon.

The Moon is currently in the constellation of Capricornus. The current Right Ascension is 21h 41m 04s and the Declination is -18° 29' 15”.

On a new moon day, the illuminated part of the moon faces the Sun whereas, the dark part, i.e., the non-illuminated part of the moon faces the Earth. Thus, we cannot see the moon.

Yes, everyone sees the same phases of the Moon.

The way the Moon looks to us is continually changing. It moves across the sky rapidly over the course of a night. And from night to night it rises and falls at different times and in different parts of the sky.

The closer it is to moonrise, the further east you would look for the Moon, and the closer it is to moonset, the further west you would look for it. If you take a daily newspaper, you can usually find the times of moonset and moonrise on the weather page.

A new moon, the first of the eight phases of the moon. Depicts the moon as a full, bluish- or grayish-black, cratered disc, not illuminated by the sun. May be used to represent the moon more generally, nighttime, outer space, and astronomy.

What happens every 18.6 years? ›

The major lunar standstill results from the rotation of the Moon's inclined orbit over the course of that 18.6-year cycle. Because the Moon changes little during a standstill, the phenomenon can be observed for the remainder of 2024 and into the year 2025. The last time a standstill like this happened was in 2005.

The Moon's current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Gibbous.

A moonquake is the lunar equivalent of an earthquake (i.e., a quake on the Moon) although moonquakes are caused in different ways. They were first discovered by the Apollo astronauts.

The Moon's surface is dominated by igneous rocks. The lunar highlands are formed of anorthosite, an igneous rock predominantly of calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar.

Earth's moon does have a name: In English, it's "the moon." The word moon is Proto-Germanic in origin, deriving from a similar-sounding word that came into use a few thousand years ago in Northern Europe.

The Moon's orbit around Earth

The orbital movements between the Earth, Sun and Moon means we see the Moon in its four principal phases throughout the month. When the Moon is opposite the Sun, we see a full Moon and when it is between the Earth and Sun, it is a new Moon and not visible to us.

The Moon orbits the Earth so once a month the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth and we don't have the Moon in view on the night side of the Earth facing away from the Sun which is good because the Moon is a pest with all that reflected sunlight when it comes to astronomy looking at faint objects.

Eventually, the Moon reaches a point in its orbit when we don't see any of the Moon illuminated. At that point, the far side of the Moon is facing the Sun. This phase is called a new moon. During the new moon, the side facing Earth is dark.

Without the moon, experts estimate the Earth's tilt could increase as high as 45°. That means the planet would be spinning on its side, like Uranus does. This would have significant impacts on life on Earth. It would cause major changes in the climate.