The Moon - WTF?

I live in the middle of nowhere so the Moon's cycles are something I get to see vividly and get to use from time to time so I get to know about its cycles, timings and what not.

However, this cycle I've seen something very odd - I first saw the Moon today at around 11am - nothing wrong with that I thought, happens quite often that the moon is there in the day along with the sun. BUT, this cycle is VERY different in that the Moon is still in the sky at 00:40 in the morning, some 12 hours later - I HAVE NEVER, EVER known this to happen before.

Anybody know what is going on with the Moon at the moment?

milonic said:

I live in the middle of nowhere so the Moon's cycles are something I get to see vividly and get to use from time to time so I get to know about its cycles, timings and what not.

However, this cycle I've seen something very odd - I first saw the Moon today at around 11am - nothing wrong with that I thought, happens quite often that the moon is there in the day along with the sun. BUT, this cycle is VERY different in that the Moon is still in the sky at 00:40 in the morning, some 12 hours later - I HAVE NEVER, EVER known this to happen before.

Anybody know what is going on with the Moon at the moment?

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It's goin' tae be the closest to the earth on or around the 19th... last time was anout 20 years ago (seemingly)

Try googlin' "moon 19th march" to get a better idea

yeah, that all says it's going to be closer than it is normally but nothing about it being in the sky for longer than normal.

I'll dig a little deeper and see what I can find.

milonic said:

yeah, that all says it's going to be closer than it is normally but nothing about it being in the sky for longer than normal.

I'll dig a little deeper and see what I can find.

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Keep us posted if ye find owt mate.... be quite interesting (tae me at least)

hmmmm remeber reading an email bout the moon being closer than normal but snopes sorted out my questions. I believe when I got it, it was for sometime last October. as for up from 11am till past midnight. I Guess its possible but Im no astronomer... Course it possible you saw it at the end of one period of visibility and didnt notice it until it had come back up?

Siliconwombat said:

hmmmm remeber reading an email bout the moon being closer than normal but snopes sorted out my questions. I believe when I got it, it was for sometime last October. as for up from 11am till past midnight. I Guess its possible but Im no astronomer... Course it possible you saw it at the end of one period of visibility and didnt notice it until it had come back up?

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Good point, otherwise the moon would be stationary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found a calculator at Moonrise, Moonset and Moonphase for U.K. – England – London – coming days that helps explain the timings but not the reason.

It says that today the moon will rise at 11.24 and then set at 03:10 tomorrow - that's about 16 hours of moonshine, hic.

If you change the month on the calculator to 4th January 2011 - you'll see that there's only 8 hours.

I'll try and follow the moon today if I can see it - but I think this all depends on how high the moon is in the sky. I guess that the higher it is, the longer it will be there as is happening right now. On 4th Jan 2011 I guess it just kind of popped up over the horizon and then set again.

I'm getting into this now

Hmm, pretty interesting stuff. Apparently this period with the moon being at its closest point to Earth coincides with the tectonic activity in Japan. This has happened before with large earthquakes coinciding with this. They reckon it's because the moon's stronger gravitational forces mess up Earth and cause more earthquakes than normal. Pretty awesome, though I reckon it's the run up to the end of the world in 2012

Incidentally, if anyone gets a chance to watch the sci-fi film 'Moon', do it, it's fantastic

Langers said:

Hmm, pretty interesting stuff. Apparently this period with the moon being at its closest point to Earth coincides with the tectonic activity in Japan. This has happened before with large earthquakes coinciding with this. They reckon it's because the moon's stronger gravitational forces mess up Earth and cause more earthquakes than normal. Pretty awesome, though I reckon it's the run up to the end of the world in 2012

Incidentally, if anyone gets a chance to watch the sci-fi film 'Moon', do it, preferably before 23/12/2012

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Editted for accuracy

I saw some documentary about the prediction of the end of the world in 2012 by some ancient tribe that have made many correct predictions, personally I blame the coalition government!