When is moon next visible in daylight?

[peterminella]

Hi all,
I am only very much a beginner in astronomy. My daughters teacher has asked if I can bring in my telescope to show the kids. I figured it would be pretty boring if there was nothing to look at and since it will be daytime I thought the best would be to go in when the moon is visible. So, can anyone tell me how to find out when the moon will be visible or tell me when over the next few days (10 to 11/ April it's holidays after that) or during May. I am in Sydney. I have looked at the Astronomy 2008 book but I can't see anything which advises day time viewing.

Thanks.

[iceman]

Hi Peter

For during the day moon viewing, the third quarter is usually best as it will be on the West side of the sky when the Sun is on the East. However, this doesn't help you because third quarter isn't for another 2 weeks.

It will visible in the afternoon over the next week or so, so if you do it after school or in the last hour or so of school you should be able to see it high in the west as the Sun is getting lower.

[Blue Skies]

You certainly can do daylight moon viewing, but just keep in mind that the image will not be as sharp as it is at night - the blue scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere tends to make things a little fuzzy.

There are two times during the lunar cycle when it's a good time to do it:

First quarter moon, when the moon rises around midday and will be easily visible in the afternoon.

or

Last Quarter moon, when the moon can be seen in the morning sky after sunrise.


New moon is no good as the moon is too close to the sun, and full moon is no good as it in the opposite side of the sky to the sun (eg, it will be below the horizon for most of the daytime).

Best thing to do is to decide whether it's going to be a morning or afternoon session, get Astronomy 2008 into your hands again and either look up the moon phases, or look in the back for moon rise and set times for your location (Sydney) to see when the moon will be above your horizon.

[sheeny]

Hi Peter.

:welcome: to IIS!

If you have a look at the moon phase diagram to the left <---- you will see its currently just a thin sliver. It was new moon on the weekend so the moon was almost in line with th sun. Notice the diagram says the moon is "waxing" i.e. growing or getting bigger (in terms of phase).

While the moon is waxing, it follows the sun across the sky but each day getting a bit further behind. So by about the weekend the sun should be rising at midday, and will be high in the sky around sunset.

Another week after that, the moon should be nearing full, so it will rise while the sun is setting and will be visible most of the night.

About two weeks after this weekend the moon will be high in the sky when the sun rises.

So depending on what time of day you want to view the moon, maybe in the next few days (afternoon?) or in about 3 weeks time (morning?)

Hope this helps.

BTW don't forget to be very vigilant with the scope during the daytime. Make sure no one points it at the sun! Extremely dangerous to anyone looking through it at the sun, but it can very easily do damage to your scope as well (if not done properly)!

Al.

[peterminella]

Thanks everyone. The reason I wanted to know was my daughters teacher has asked if I can bring in my telescope. I advised that I was far from any expert but it would be best if it was when the moon was visible so that the children could at least see something. So, I needed to be able to set a date and time for it and now, with your help I am able to do it.

Again, thanks.