The Position and Phase of the Moon - Essay Example

I collected data for a whole week, observing the position and phase of the moon each day, analyzed the data, and made the conclusions below from the data and my research:

The moon moves in a circular orbit around the earth. It revolves around the earth in a westward direction across the sky. The moon’s initial direction is eastward, but the earth also rotates eastward and at a much higher speed. Therefore, when the moon is observed, it appears to revolve in a westerly direction each day.

From research, I found out that the moon takes approximately 27.3 days to rotate with the earth. That means that every day it moves about 13.2° each day eastwards relative to the position of the stars. The stars move across the sky in approximately 23 hours and 56 minutes. The moon takes about 24 hours and 49 minutes to cross the sky. Because of this, the moon rises and sets later than the previous day and it does this for around 27 days when it has finished one revolution, and it goes back to the rising sun setting at the initial times.