dipper@utastro.UUCP (06/10/85)
The moon is now waning -- and appears in the east before dawn. More -- after this. June 10 Last Quarter Moon If you're looking for the moon this week, you'll find it only after midnight -- or in a clear blue morning sky. The moon is at last quarter today -- meaning it's now rising in the east around the middle of the night. Around dawn Monday morning, the moon is high in the sky -- due to set around midday. A last quarter moon is a waning moon. It appears half-illuminated on Monday -- but will shrink to a slimmer crescent with each passing day. As our companion world moves around the Earth -- always toward the east in its orbit of our world -- it appears at a more easterly location each day in Earth's sky. The moon moves toward the east -- so it rises later each day this week -- closer and closer to the dawn. If you're out before dawn this week, look in the east for the moon. Each morning, it'll appear as a slimmer crescent than the day before -- as the lighted half of the globe of the moon slowly sweeps away from our view. As it gets closer to the sun in the east before dawn, the moon really approaches an imaginary line between the Earth and sun in space. When it's on that imaginary line, we won't see the moon at all. Its lighted half will face directly away from our world. The moon will be hidden in the sun's glare -- a new moon -- due to reappear in the west after sunset -- sometime around the middle of next week. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin