If you were standing on the moon would earth rise and set?

Answer 1

From the moon, what you would observe of Earth would be interesting. For one thing, whether or not you ever see Earth would depend on where your colony is located. If you were on the "far side" of the moon, you would never ever observe Earth in the sky, for the same reason that we never observe that part of the moon from earth. If you were right in the center of the face of the moon that we can see, you would see Earth all the time. It would be high in your sky every moment, (except that you won't be able to view it when it is too close to the sun) and it would seem to move only a little (due to something called libration). If you are at some places near the 'cusp', or edge of the face visible from Earth, you might see earth-rise and Earth-set, and this would be because of the libration mentioned above. The earth would not cross your lunar sky the way the stars and planets seem to move when observed from earth. It would make a strange up-and-down motion over the course of several earth days and then set not too far from where it rises.

You would see earth phases progressing over the course of the month, because your viewpoint relative to the Earth and sun would be constantly changing. Remember, you might be looking at a full, or nearly full earth over the course of a few earth nights, but the Earth continues to rotate on its axis every 24 hours. During the period of "full Earth" you will occasionally see what is being observed on earth as a solar eclipse. You won't see the sun being eclipsed by earth, but you will see the moon's fuzzy shadow move across the face of the "full earth" as the moon blocks the light that is on its way to earth. I guess you would call it an "earth eclipse". When this happens, it will be in the middle of your long lunar night.

When you are looking up at the "new earth", (the earth is between you and the sun) occasionally you will see the earth cut right across the sun. This will be your solar eclipse, and it will appear to be a lunar eclipse from earth. The disk of the earth will be much larger than the disk of the sun, and you will see something spectacular that I don't believe has been observed by any human yet. You'll see a brilliant red ring around the earth, as the light from the sun is bent around by the mass of the earth. This is what gives the moon its reddish tint during a lunar eclipse. I will never witness this; I hope that you can and will.

Also, if you are on the far side of the moon (I think that would be the better area) you would see breathtaking night skies. there would be no atmosphere getting in the way, and no worries about cloudy weather. The sky would be black and studded with celestial things. You would never have a full moon to contend with, and never a full earth, either. Of course, your long lunar nights would be off-set by equally long lunar days.

Answer 2

Due to the process of libration, the Earth can be perceived as rising and setting from the Moon. however, you would have to be?ævery close to the Moon's horizon to see the Earth rising and setting.?æ

Answer 3

Solar eclipses, of course, which would be a LOT more impressive than solar eclipses on Earth, because the Earth would completely blot out the Sun for an hour and a half at a time. Curiously, the Earthlings would be experiencing a Lunar eclipse at exactly the same time!

Also, Terran eclipses, which wouldn't be all THAT impressive; just a black dot on the Earth as the shadow of the Moon crossed the Earth. Earthlings would call these eclipses "solar", but what do they know?

Of course, if you lived on the "far side" of the Moon - working at one of the giant lunar telescopes, which are forever shielded from terrestrial light and radiation - you would experience no eclipses at all. You'd also never see the Earth.

Answer 4

No in most cases. If you remain on one specific spot on the moon, the Earth will appear to be in the same part of the sky since the moon is gravitationally locked into presenting only one side to the Earth (see link for full explanation). The Earth will undergo phases, just like the moon does as viewed from Earth, but it will remain in the same general area.

Lunar libration will cause some apparent movement of the Earth in the sky. If you are in a place where the Earth appears within 2 or 3 degrees of the horizon, then you will see it dipping below then rising above the horizon every 29.5 days. The maximum range of apparent motion of the Earth in the Lunar sky will be only 9 degrees at most.

Answer 5

Since the same part of the moon always is facing the earth, the earth will not appear to move (very much). So the Earth does not rise & set from the moon's perspective. It will move around a little bit in the sky, because the moon does not always take exactly the same path around the earth.

The earth will change phases, much like the moon goes through phases (New Moon, 1st quarter, Full moon, etc).

Answer 6

You would see solar and lunar eclipses. But, while the Earth is having a solar eclipse, the Moon would be having a lunar eclipse. When the Earth is having a lunar eclipse, the Moon would be having a solar eclipse. If you were on the dark side of the Moon, you would NOT see any eclipses.

Answer 7

Yes. The interesting point is that the Earth would seem to hover in the lunar sky, remaining fairly close to the same spot. This is because the Moon spins at the same rate that it orbits the Earth. We see this as the Moon always having the same "face", but from the Moon it would look like the Earth slowly wobbling back and forth across the same area of the sky.

But it would still have "phases".

Answer 8

We'll be more than happy to describe every aspect of the moon, in as great detail as you

might desire, with every phase and nuance. But pray, before we go into that, please please

tell us if you will, where you are, and what you see from there. An entire planet thirsts to know.

Answer 9

The same face of the moon is always facing Earth, so the Earth would not rise and set, as the sun does, but it would go through phase changes (like Full Earth, First Quarter, Last Quarter, etc.) just as the moon appears to go through phases. Or if you landed on the 'dark side' of the moon, you would never see the Earth, because you're always facing away from it.

Answer 10

You would see similar phases, but the earth phase as viewed from the moon will always be the opposite of the moon phase as seen from earth at any given time. If the moon is seen as a full moon from earth, then the earth would be in complete shadow. If a new moon is seen from the earth, then a full earth would be seen from the moons surface.