moon phase and path by specific location

August 16, 2015 7:21 PM

I want to see a graphical representation of the moon and it's phase, elevation and path across the sky for my specific geographical location. You know, watch the moon come up on the right place on the horizon, with the crescent (or whatever) at the right angle, move across the sky at the right elevation, and with time indicators. Want to watch it on my PC. Is there a website, app or whatever (yeah I'm not too computer smart) that will do this?
posted by Jackson to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

Starmap might be able to do this.
posted by monospace at 7:28 PM on August 16, 2015

Best answer: Stellarium will do all of this. If you turn on the Scale Moon option you can easily see the moon phases.

Free, and excellent.
posted by BillMcMurdo at 7:40 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Seconding Stellarium - you can control date, time, and precise geographic location.
posted by teponaztli at 7:42 PM on August 16, 2015

Also http://photoephemeris.com
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:47 PM on August 16, 2015

Lunar phase doesn't change very significantly if you're in different places on the Earth, FWIW; it just changes when the moon is over your local horizon. Someone on the opposite side of the planet from you (with both people at the equator, where the effect would be the most pronounced) would see the moon rise as you see it set, and the phases they see would be the next 1/56th-of-one-lunar-period after the 1/56th you saw. Let's see-- the leading terminator (terminator is the edge where light meets dark, so here the leading edge of sunlit moon) goes around the moon every 28 days, so every 12 hours (1/56) sees a change of just over 6 degrees of movement by the terminator. At moonset, that person would see a 3.6% change from moonrise (6.4 degrees movement over the 180-degree visible face of the moon), so that's the most different it would be from you being on one side of the Earth vs. being on the other. Visually, the change would be most significant for a few days either side of the half moon (whether waning or waxing), because that's when it would have the greatest apparent lateral movement.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:22 PM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]