Could refraction by the earth's atmosphere have some relevance here? Andrew
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Greg Gómez Sent: 31 August 2006 00:15 To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Question about lunar phase and the sun's path in the sky Hello, everybody: I have a question concerning the moon's phase, and solar position. Today (30 Aug 2006) I observed that the moon rose and the sun transited almost simultaneously at my longitude (106W): Sun transit 13:07 Moonrise 13:02 [1] I reckoned that this must also mean that the moon's phase is pretty close to 3/4 full (or 1/2 waxing). However, the Naval Observatory says: Phase of the Moon on 30 August: waxing crescent with 38% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated. As it turns out, the last quarter Moon occurs more than a day later on 31 August 2006 at 1657 MDT. So, my reasoning failed. However, my somewhat meager knowledge of dialing led me to a new hypothesis: The sun's path (and the moon's) aren't describing a circular, but rather a hyperbolic path in the sky. This means that it's possible to have the sun and moon be on the meridian and the horizon, respectively, and yet be more than 90 degrees apart. Am I correct in this? Thanks! Greg 1. All astronomical data from US Naval Observatory, http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
