Home › NY Regents Earth and Space Sciences › Science › Earth, Moon, and Sky › It is midnight and a fully lit Moon is high over…
It is midnight and a fully lit Moon is high overhead. Two weeks later, what will the midnight sky hold?
AA full moon overhead again
BNo moon in the sky at all
CA thin crescent overhead
DA first quarter overhead
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. No moon in the sky at all
1. A fully lit Moon high up at midnight is the full phase.
2. The whole cycle of phases takes about 29.5 days, so two weeks is roughly half of it.
3. Half a cycle after full comes new moon.
4. The new moon lies in the same part of the sky as the Sun.
5. It therefore rises at sunrise and sets at sunset, and is below the horizon at midnight.
6. So nothing lunar is visible at midnight two weeks later.
7. Answering full moon assumes the phase does not change over half a cycle.
8. A crescent or first quarter would need only a few days to pass, not a fortnight.
_Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 "Earth, Moon, and Sky" and Ch 5 "Radiation and Spectra", section 4.5 Phases and Motions of the Moon_
Related questions
Far more people can watch a given lunar eclipse than a given solar eclipse. What is the reTidal friction is slowing Earth's spin, yet the angular momentum of the Earth and Moon togA star rises at 9:00 p.m. tonight. About what time will it rise one month from now?Imagine Earth had an axis tilted by 16 degrees instead of 23. What would the gap in latituWhy is there no eclipse at every new moon and every full moon?The Moon is far smaller than the Sun, yet it can cover the Sun exactly. What makes that poWhen the Sun and Moon line up at new moon or full moon, what happens to the tides?The full moon sits opposite the Sun in the sky. When does it rise and set?