The moon is the only satellite that orbits the Earth and, therefore, the closest to us among the celestial bodies. It is due to its proximity to the Earth , which is visible to the naked eye and without special machinery it is even possible to see the details of the surface when it appears at night, but we have also sometimes looked at the sky in broad daylight and have been able to see the moon without any problem. Why? .
Why can we sometimes see the Moon during the day?
Man has been fascinated by this star since ancient times . And the first studies go back to antiquity until the “great step for humanity” of the landing of the first man on the moon on July 21, 1969 . Not to mention how the moon inspired literature, poetry, and art .
It is even true that the moon and its changes ( lunar phases ) can influence man’s life, his state of mind, even births and even some biological phenomena and somehow all this makes the moon become something fascinating. A satellite that we observe with delight … even during the day.
The cycle of the moon
To understand why the moon can be seen even when it is daytime, we must know well what its cycle is. To do this, we have to know (or remember) that the moon revolves around the Earth . In its rotation it is visible to man when the sun illuminates the side facing our planet.
From here, it is normal to understand that we usually see the moon in the afternoon and at night. However, there are times when the moon remains visible even in the early hours of the day and late in the afternoon.
The lunar cycle lasts 29 days : during this period the moon goes from being invisible (new moon) to the phase of maximum luminosity and visibility (full moon). These are the phases that are called increasing phase and decreasing phase.
A full moon occurs when it is behind the Earth and therefore the sun hits both at the same time and that is when the “miracle” seems to occur.
Early in the morning, the sun hits Earth with only a fraction of the light . Precisely because the sky has not reached its maximum brightness, the moon is often still visible . Of course, its colors are much less clear, reaching a white tone.
But sometimes, the moon also appears during the day when it is in the waning phase when the moon rises in the late afternoon and disappears in the late morning.
