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Why Can You See the Moon During the Day?

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We Asked a NASA Scientist.

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We think of the Moon as a nighttime object
because it's often shown that way to us in

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books and movies. Even the weatherman uses the
Sun as a symbol for day and the Moon for night.

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But the Moon actually spends almost as much time
in the daytime sky as the night. You just have

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to look a little harder to see it. Let's think
about why we can see the Moon at night at all.

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Unlike our Sun, the Moon doesn't create its own
light. We can only see it because light from the

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Sun is reflecting off of its surface. The same is true
during the day, and unlike the stars which are

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also still up there during the day but we can't
see them because the sky is too bright, the Moon

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actually shines bright enough that you can see it
day or night as long as it's in the right part of\hthe sky.

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During a full Moon, the Moon is opposite
the Sun in the sky. That's why we can see the

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full face of the Moon reflecting sunlight. As
the Earth rotates, the Moon rises just as the Sun

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sets, but just on that one day of the month. In
the days before a full Moon, if you look in the

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eastern sky, you can find the almost full Moon\h
rising before the sun sets. And the days after

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a full Moon, you can look in the western sky and\h
find the Moon setting after the Sun has come up.

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Over the last year, I've actually made a game of\h
timing my daily bike ride to see if I can spot

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it in the daytime sky. But it will keep you on your\h
toes. It sets about 50 minutes later each day as it

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marches through its phases. So, keep your eyes peeled\h
and keep looking up. Maybe you can spot it, too.