New Moon

           From the lunar phase diagram that is part of my last post I can predict what the next phase of the moon will be on Sunday. Knowing as stated before that in a week span the moon will complete approximately two phases.  It follows that if the moon was in the third quarter phase that in one week it will pass through the waxing crescent phase. When I observe the moon on Sunday it will be in the new moon phase. This phase is highest in the sky at noon and cannot be seen because of the alignment of the earth’s sun and moon. Thus we cannot see the half of the moon that the sun is lighting up. Interestingly one may think that there should be a solar eclipse every new moon because the moon is between the Earth and Sun. This does not occur because the moon orbits the Earth and a slight angle and prevents the solar eclipse. To have a solar eclipse the moon, sun and earth have to line up exactly. When I observed the moon at around 12 noon on Sunday there was just a sliver of the moon that I could see. This portion of the moon that I saw can be explained because the new moon will occur on Sept. 27 which is two days after my observations. This is closer to the new moon phase as opposed to the waxing crescent phase. The figure that is shown below shows what Stellarium the computer program gave for the phase of the moon on Sunday at noon. This backs up my prediction as well as my observations. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium

            To prove that the true new moon would occur on the Tuesday I have used Stellarium to give a picture of what the new moon should look like. This is represented in the figure below. Stay tune for the next phase of the moon. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium