I look forward to being unwilling to shut up to the whippersnappers about how when I was young, the moon didn’t have all those dots of light from the settlements.
Me too… If I’m not myself on one of those settlements.
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I remember when I first realized waxing moons are visible in the evening, and waning moons are visible in the morning. It was maybe a year and a half ago, I was laying in bed one morning, reflecting on the fact that most rotation in the Solar System happens in the same direction (prograde; Venus is a notable exception, rotating around its axis in a retrograde direction). As I was visualizing all these orbs rotating and orbiting eachother in the same direction, I realized that it followed that the moon would show at specific parts of the day based on its phase, and was able to confirm my inference that evening, when I saw the waxing moon, and as I noticed the moon rise later and later each passing night as it waxed fuller and fuller, eventually dissappearing, when it would rise after I would go to bed.
I do get a good amount of pleasure from keeping track of the moon’s phase based on when I see it, but I mostly get this pleasure as it waxes, as I am a night owl, and am not often out and about in the morning, when one would be able to see it waning. On the occasions that I do wake up early enough to see a waning moon, it always put a big smile on my face, since it is such a rare sight for me, though.
Me too… If I’m not myself on one of those settlements.
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I remember when I first realized waxing moons are visible in the evening, and waning moons are visible in the morning. It was maybe a year and a half ago, I was laying in bed one morning, reflecting on the fact that most rotation in the Solar System happens in the same direction (prograde; Venus is a notable exception, rotating around its axis in a retrograde direction). As I was visualizing all these orbs rotating and orbiting eachother in the same direction, I realized that it followed that the moon would show at specific parts of the day based on its phase, and was able to confirm my inference that evening, when I saw the waxing moon, and as I noticed the moon rise later and later each passing night as it waxed fuller and fuller, eventually dissappearing, when it would rise after I would go to bed.
I do get a good amount of pleasure from keeping track of the moon’s phase based on when I see it, but I mostly get this pleasure as it waxes, as I am a night owl, and am not often out and about in the morning, when one would be able to see it waning. On the occasions that I do wake up early enough to see a waning moon, it always put a big smile on my face, since it is such a rare sight for me, though.
This is what I meant by “it’s a trivial exercise in orbital mechanics, so maybe all of you do this instinctively”. I got there empirically. :)