When is the best time to view the moon?

Answer 1

Do you mean besides at night? The best observation time for any celestial body is when it is as close as possible to straight overhead. This is because there is less atmospheric distortion. When viewing straight up, you are looking through 5 or 10 miles of the thickest air. When looking at something on the horizion, you are looking through 100 miles of air, maybe more. If you are refering to the phases of the moon, you will see craters in the sharpest detail when they are right on the edge between the light and dark part of the moon. A full moon is interesting but does not show the detail of the craters due to a high glare factor. As the moon is going from new to full, you can go out ever night at about the same time and see totally different features.

Answer 2

The best time to view the moon is during the evening when it is high in the sky and fully illuminated. This typically occurs a few days before and after the full moon phase. Avoid viewing the moon during the day when it is harder to see due to the sunlight.

Answer 3

If you want to know when the full moon will happen, check the weather pages in your daily paper, or ring your local meteorologist bureau, or go online - key in phases of the moon for (say) May.

Answer 4

From Earth - never. The far side - or dark side - is never viewable from Earth because the Earth and the Moon are tidally locked, so one face of the Moon is always facing the Earth. To view the "dark side of the Moon", you need to go into space to view it.

Answer 5

While opinions may vary, my opinion is that the best view of the Moon is through a small telescope or binoculars about 2 days after the first quarter Moon. When the Moon is gibbous, the Sun's light strikes at an angle, throwing the mountains into stark relief.

When the Moon is full, the Sun's rays strike the Moon vertically, washing out the contrast and giving the Moon a flat, almost featureless appearance.

Answer 6

There are four factors that the Moon's visibility can be affected by:

• The Earth itself might be blocking you from seeing the Moon (you could see it if the Earth was transparent)
• The light that's coming from the Sun might be too bright for you to see the Moon's surface which only reflects sunlight, it does not emit it (if this is a case, it's probably a daytime).
• The third factor is the Earth's atmosphere: if the clouds are too thick for the moonlight too break through, you won't see the Moon.
• The person trying to take a look at the Moon's surface might be fully or partly blind, therefore permitting a person to see the Moon.

Answer 7

Provided your sky is clear and you know when and where to look, you can see at least

some of the moon's lighted side on roughly 26 days/nights out of every 29.

At the time of the Full Moon, you see essentially all of it.

Answer 8

On the average, the moon is in the sky for almost 13 hours of every 24.

With the possible exception of the New Moon and Full Moon, it's up and visible for some part

of every daylight period, and for some part of every dark period. The times vary, depending

on the moon's phase.

The rising and setting times for the moon are listed along with the weather data in most

local newspapers.

Answer 9

Unless you LIKE getting up before dawn, then early evenings for the 10 days following the new moon offer the best viewing.

The day after the new moon, look low in the western sky at sunset for the extremely thin crescent moon called "Diana's Bow". The goddess Diana the Huntress represented the Moon in Greek mythology, and is sometimes depicted as an archer with her bow pulled into a crescent. (This myth was featured in the Disney movie Fantasia, at the end of the segment for Beethoven's Pastoral, Symphony #6.) As the week goes on, each evening will present you with a thicker and thicker Moon.

If you have a small telescope, the best viewing is at the first quarter moon and the couple of days following; by the time of the Full Moon, the vertical rays of the Sun's light tend to wash out all the interesting shadows and features on the Moon's surface.

Answer 10

Midnight. As then it is right above you and truth be told, I've heard it shines the brightest at midnight too!