Your view of the moon

[Brijrian]

My husband and I recently went hiking, and started discussing the moon. He told me that depending on the hemisphere we are in, we see the moon differently.

For example, when we in the northern hemisphere see a waxing moon (backwards C shape), on the same night those of us in the southern hemisphere see the waning moon (forward C shape).

Is that true? I can see how his explanation would make sense although I can't replicate it online (too much handwaving!!). I always assumed that we all saw the same phase of the moon.

[Anonymous]

Your husband is half right. A waxing moon in the Northern hemisphere appears as a reversed 'C' shape, and the people in the Southern hemisphere see this as a forward 'C' shape. However, the moon in the Southern hemisphere is still waxing, only the line of illumination is travelling from left to right rather than right to left.

The reason for this is because the moon orbits roughly over the equator, meaning that we're looking South towards the moon and the people in the Southern hemisphere are looking North at it.

Another thing to note is that the Sun and Moon appear to travel anti-clockwise in the sky when observed from the Southern hemisphere.

[Brijrian]

Thank you very much! That makes sense!

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much! That makes sense!

No problem. ;-)

[Blayze]

Hi there,

Yep, we see it differently in the Southern Hemisphere.

The moon symbol should really be (0) for us. More star wars than
)0(

Bright blessings
Blayze

[Zenon]

southern hemisphere here.  how is that? (O)

[Brijrian]

southern hemisphere here. how is that? (O)

If I'm interpreting your question correctly:
In the southern hemisphere

(  represents the waxing moon
o represents the full moon
)  represents the waning moon

So ( o ) is the symbol (when read from right to left) for the southern hemisphere's progression from waxing to full to waning moon phases.

---
Up here in the northern hemisphere

)  represents the waxing moon
o represents the full moon
(  represents the waning moon

So for me,  )o(  is the symbol (when read from right to left) for the northern hemisphere's progression from waxing to full to waning moon phases. [/quote]