Eli5:The moon changing directions. I took a picture August 2, then August 20. I’m in central USA. The first pic, the moon was positioned Southeast, the second, southwest. How does it change so quickly?

Question

Edit: Both pictures were taken at approximately 9:45pm

In: 0

Answer 1

The moon rises in the east and sets in the west, same as the sun. Your August 2 pic was close to moonrise. August 20 was close to moonset.

Answer 2

It’s rotating around us while we spin. Seems totally expected that it would change positions drastically

Answer 3

The moon rises almost an hour later each day (and also sets almost an hour later each day) from the previous day. So yes it changes position with respect to the clock by quite a bit from one day to another.