Lunar Occultations: When the Moon Hides a Planet or Star For a few moments, the Moon can make a star, or even a planet, vanish from the sky. These fleeting alignments are both spectacular observing events and precision astronomical measurements.…

Short answer: at a typical spot away from the poles, one lunar day (one sunrise to the next) lasts about 29.53 Earth days (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes). That usually means roughly two weeks of daylight followed by two…

There are 12 full moons in 2027, starting with the Wolf Moon on January 22 and ending with the Cold Moon on December 13. Below you will find every date, the traditional name of each moon, and a free printable…

Short answer: it isn’t upside down, it’s rotated. The Moon shows us essentially the same face from everywhere. But “up” for you points in a different direction in space depending on where you stand, so a high Moon seen from…

The Moon swings from about 127°C in full sunlight to about -173°C in darkness, driven mainly by the Sun with no thick atmosphere to soften it. Why the lunar surface gets so hot and so cold, how it varies by…

Lunar Geodesy • Mass Determination How Do Scientists Weigh the Moon? Table of Contents Two Equations, One Ratio Barycenter and Mass Ratio Why GM Dominates The Error Budget Spacecraft Era – From Perturbations to Farside Tracking How Tracking Works –…

Wet Moon: Why the Crescent Looks Like a Bowl or Smile Why a crescent Moon can look like a bowl or smile, what controls its orientation, and where this unusual lunar appearance can be seen. Quick Facts Also Known As…