﻿ Moon phases on other side of Earth: Planetarium

Moon phases on other side of Earth

02 April, 2009

Full Moon
Photograph of Moon at Full phase
Source: Museum Victoria






Comments (50)

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Rev. Frederick Lipp 28 January, 2016 05:13
I have an old friend living in UK and I live in Maine, USA. Please tell me the best times on a clear night we can look at the moon at the same time. Thank you.
Discovery Centre 8 February, 2016 11:38

Hi Frederick,

The Moon rises in the east due to Earth’s easterly rotation and Maine is 5 hours behind the UK. These website pages will show Moon rise and dates for UK and for Maine. To see the Moon at the same time, or simultaneously, choose a rising time & date for Maine. At that moment the Moon will already have risen in the UK some 5hrs earlier and therefore will be higher in the east due to Earth’s rotation. There will be several hours during the night when it will be visible from Maine and the UK before it sets in the west first for a UK observer and then 5hrs later for someone in Maine. The same can be done for daytime risings of the Moon as it is quite slow in its month-long orbit (compared to the Earth’s 24 hour rotation) so it will often be seen during the day.

http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/uk/london http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/usa/augusta


Lai Chew Ping 28 December, 2015 00:21
Why does the moon look different from different locations? my husband and i had a dispute over this matter. he was at his shop when he saw a very very big, low, near and beautiful moon, he then informed me to look at it and take a picture of it. when i walk outside my house, the moon that i saw was high in the sky, slightly bigger and brighter than usual, not as big, near and low as he said. why is that so? the distance between his shop and my house was just a few kilometers apart. we were infact seeing the same moon at the same time, but why was there so much difference?
Discovery Centre 1 January, 2016 14:58
Hello! Our Planetarium staff say that human perception explains a lot about how the moon looks. If it's low to the horizon we have trees, buildings, mountains/hills and the like to compare it against and it seems bigger than higher in the sky where our eyes have nothing to compare it to (and so it seems smaller). When seen at the same time by two people who are nearby or even far apart, then local objects for comparison may not be the same, and also their subjective impressions will very often differ.

For more, plus a video, see:




Johnathon 15 October, 2015 12:57
Oct 14,2015 I witness the moon rise in the west i was with to other people who witnessed the same moon, is this common?
Discovery Centre 17 October, 2015 12:35
Hi Johnathon,
Because the Earth's rotation is always the same direction, the moon will always rise in the east (or to some degree north or south of east). You may have been facing a different direction, or the moon may have already transited the sky. Here's a tool for working out lunar history: http://www.mooncalc.org/
Kiran 12 October, 2015 04:51
If i see a crescent moon in Oklahoma, USA, what moon would they see at night on the opposite side of the Earth? (Somewhere in China) Why?
musawa 18 November, 2015 11:40
your answer about the moon phases always appearing the same every place on earth is misleading! The direction the crescent moons appear to be facing is actually reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (ie., not just inverted/upside down, but also the mirror image of each other, ie., are facing the other way). While the moon phases are the same (ie, the new moon, waxing moon, full moon and waning moon occur at the same time all over the earth), the side of the moon that is lit up is reversed in the N and S Hemispheres: the waxing moon in the N. Hemisphere actually faces left, not right as it appears in the S. Hemisphere (as shown in the info sheet diagram) ...and the waning moon in the N Hemisphere actually faces right, not left as it appears in the S. hemisphere.
Discovery Centre 17 October, 2015 12:13
Hi Kiran -

Both places will see the moon the same. Whatever the phase of the moon (that is, how much of the moon’s sunlit side is visible from Earth - crescent, quarter, half, full, etc..), every place on Earth will see it the same in the 24 hours it takes Earth to spin (rotate) once on its axis. The moon takes a month to orbit the Earth so in 24 hours it won’t have travelled enough to make any obvious change to its phase. The only difference to how the moon can look will be which hemisphere you view from. The moon phase won’t change but the moon (and star patterns too) will turn upside down (invert) if you travel far enough north or south of the equator which is simple geometry or change of viewing angle.    

Casper Dyne 12 September, 2015 13:42
Hopefully you can answer this simple question. I was in Fiji for about six weeks in July and August. I am from England, and noted that the half moon was in horizontal position in Fiji compared to vertical position in England! Why is that?
Discovery Centre 14 September, 2015 10:27
Hi Casper,

As you move from north to south or south to north (that is, from one hemisphere to the other) the orientation of an object, like the moon or a star pattern, slowly inverts from the observer’s point of view. Fiji in the southern hemisphere is at latitude 18 degrees south. It’s a little more than halfway to a complete upside down view compared to UK. If you view the moon further and further south eventually it will be upside down to your usual UK northern hemisphere view. Being on a globe means that if you move north or south then the angle looking out to space will change too. Here’s a website from Kent, UK which provides more information.
jennifer 25 July, 2015 08:02
why is it that Alaska has thirty days of night or thirty days of daytime. so at this time were is the sun or the moon.
Discovery Centre 6 September, 2015 12:39

Hi Jennifer - we checked with one of our Astronomy specialists at the Planetarium, and they've answered as follows:

Alaska is in the high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. For part of the year in winter the Sun will be below the horizon for several weeks and won’t rise each day. This is due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis which is 23.5 degrees from vertical. Six months later in summer Alaska will have the Sun above the horizon for a similar amount of time. The further you are away from the equator, and so closer to either the north or south pole, the more extreme this winter versus summer pattern is. This summer/winter pattern is opposite for high latitudes in the southern hemisphere.

The Moon is very different thing. It takes a month to travel around (orbit) the Earth and can appear in the night or day. Apart from the Sun, it’s the only thing in space we can see during the day because it’s so close. In the 24 hours it takes the Earth to turn once (rotate) on its axis the Moon will eventually be seen from every place on Earth.

William Weaver 16 March, 2015 16:13
I have a lovely photo of the moon amongst high cloud in the afternoon taken from Fiji on 2nd November 2008. It ended up sideways on my computer and I've never been sure which way is up. The crescent is thin and either presenting as a C with the convex side facing slightly top left, or a D slightly facing bottom right. Could you please tell me which is correct?
Discovery Centre 26 March, 2015 11:55

Hi William

Fiji lies 18 degrees south and on 2 November 2008 the moon was showing 14-15% of its illuminated surface (that is; a crescent phase looking like a capital “C” with horns or pointed ends). It rose around 6.30am in the East (ESE) and set about 8pm in the west (ESW). The key thing to know is when the photo was taken as during the day the moon’s orientation will slowly change as the Earth rotates and it appears to travel across the sky. The crescent moon will appear to turn or rotate clockwise, but here are some sample times and orientations to help pin it down… 7am moon like a “C” leaning to right with horns pointing to lower right. 10am moon “C” turned fully sideways (lying horizontal) with horns pointing directly down. 1pm moon “C” turned further (like mirror image or reversed C) with horns pointing to right. 4pm moon “C” turned more with horns pointing to upper left. 7pm moon “C” turned (lying on its back) with horns pointing directly upwards. I hope this makes it possible to orient the photo as close to the correct time it was taken.

Shyla 6 September, 2014 00:54
Discovery Centre 8 September, 2014 14:46


wytnii 12 July, 2014 21:23
Pawan Kumar 9 July, 2014 16:35
Discovery Centre 10 July, 2014 15:54



Lisbeth Berridge 25 June, 2013 08:14
rahul 26 May, 2013 17:44
Jen 25 January, 2013 10:17
How do the phases of the moon appear in Polar regions?
Daizia 8 January, 2013 17:27
Discovery Centre 19 January, 2013 14:23

Hi Daizia,


sarma chilukuri 28 December, 2012 02:38
Matt 22 December, 2012 01:08
Discovery Centre 8 January, 2013 15:03

Hi Matt,




Rain 17 November, 2012 16:57
Discovery Centre 21 November, 2012 11:55


Chris 8 September, 2012 09:21
Discovery Centre 15 September, 2012 12:13


Hope this of some help

Fathima 24 July, 2012 17:31
Discovery Centre 2 October, 2013 12:39



Aptitude Design 29 September, 2013 16:50
Kate 20 June, 2012 08:51
Discovery Centre 20 June, 2012 13:03
Terry Bates 24 January, 2012 19:04
Discovery Centre 27 January, 2012 11:51

Hello Terry,


Andrew 18 January, 2012 15:23
Discovery Centre 21 January, 2012 10:16




lawrence 24 February, 2011 11:44
Discovery Centre 24 February, 2011 15:20
Lynne Hancock 11 September, 2010 20:28
Discovery Centre 14 September, 2010 13:33


Wayne Konopaske 28 August, 2010 15:41
Discovery Centre 4 September, 2010 14:43
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