Eli5: how do the Moon’s rise and set hours compare to the Sun’s? Is there a logic?

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The Moon doesn’t necessarily rise at sunset and go down at sunrise, sometimes it’s up during the day. So what does it do? Are those times varying depending on it’s phase? Is it random? Are they always the same for a same phase? Do they vary across the year like the Sun’s do?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

To understand this, you have to think about how the earth and moon move relative to the sun (think or a model of the solar system).

Just like the earth has an orbit around the sun, the earth’s moon has an orbit around the earth. While the earth orbits around the sun in about 365 days (a year), the moon orbits around the earth in about 27.32 days.

We see the moon because of the light from the sun reflecting off of it. The phases of the moon that we see are a result of the moon, the earth, and the sun being in different places relative to each other (the moon along its orbit around the earth and the earth being along its orbit around the sun). The cycle of the moon’s phases is about 29.53 days. This is the time it takes the moon to make one revolution relative to the sun (it’s not the same as the time it takes the moon to orbit the earth because the earth is also orbiting the sun).

https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/phases-eclipses-supermoons/overview

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/lunar-phases-and-eclipses/

This video is really helpful in visualizing this: https://youtu.be/wz01pTvuMa0

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