dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (08/01/85)
While you're out there looking at the moon tonight, you might wonder how our world looks from up there. More -- after this. August 1 Earth Seen from the Moon The moon is one day past full -- and it looks just a bit less than full when it rises a couple of hours after sunset. When the moon is full as seen from the Earth, the Earth is between the moon and sun. The sunlit side of the moon faces us -- but the sunlit side of the Earth is facing away from the moon -- as the illuminated halves of both worlds face the sun. So the moon is one day past full -- and appears slightly less than full in our sky tonight. Tonight, from the moon, the Earth would appear as a crescent -- with only a tiny sliver of its lighted half seen from the surface of the moon. The same side of the moon always faces us. So Earth never moves in the lunar sky. From the middle of the side of the moon that we see, Earth appears more or less overhead -- always. From one edge of the Earth-facing side, Earth is always low in the lunar sky. But, as seen from the moon, Earth does go through phases -- as the moon moves around the Earth -- and changes its vantagepoint on our sunlit side. During the next couple of weeks on Earth, we'll see the moon wane, or grow smaller -- while the Earth will wax fuller as seen from the moon -- as the moon moves halfway around in its orbit to pass between the Earth and sun at new moon. Script by Wayne Wyrick and Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin