Question about the moon

hey

the last two nights ive noticed there was no moon in the nighttime sky..

i checked on my stellarium and searched for the moon and it seemed to be through the ground... on the other side of earth ( im in northwest ohio).

now i went out this morning for a cigarette, and noticed the moon in the eastern sky about 1/4 up from the horizon, in a waning crescent, with the sunrise beginning in the same area....

did i miss something? i don't think i've ever seen that before?
someone please explain?

I'm not sure what you are asking.

Are you unfamiliar with how the phases of the moon work?

The new moon is Tuesday, so yes, you would be seeing the waning cresent moon in the morning.

look at this

and these:

tycho.usno.navy.mil...

www.calculatorcat.com...





[edit on 30-10-2005 by HowardRoark]

i know about the moon phases.. my question was why i was seeing the moon at 630 am where it normally is early on in the night, ie in the east and not the west? it was absent from the night sky.

The moon is not in the same spot every night.

That is the whole deal with phases, the moon moves in its orbit around the Earth.

With a waning cresent moon, you will see the moon early in the morning, since it is in the same part of the sky as the sun is.

ah... i guess i just hadnt noticed that before... then again im not really out that early in the morning often. thanks for the explanation.

Hello McGuirk

All is normal in the eastern dawn skies.

The sun actually hid a virtual parade. The moon rose first, followed by Spica, (the alpha star in Virgo). Then Jupiter, followed by the sun, Mercury, Antares (of Star Trek fame, thank you Spock) and then Venus, (Venus being the planet ejected from Jupiter sayest Velikovsky).

bc

The moon rsies about 70 minutes later every day. You can watch this very cyclical occurence very easily if you keep an eye open for it. I used to always wait for a certain part of the month when I could see the moon for my entire walk to school. 'Twas awesome.

The Moon just came out of new phase and is now in a waxing crescent, not a waning crescent like you thought. When the Moon is in a new phase it's between the Earth and the Sun. As it rotates from that position around the Earth we can see more and more of the near side being illuminated.

Anyway, as others have said, nothing is awry here.