Watching the Moon

This is an excellent week to follow the moon as it travels across the sky, if you take a look at its shape and position over a number of nights (to the end of the week for example), you should notice some interesting changes. Here's what you need to do:

Take a look at the moon at the same time each evening (between 8pm and 9pm would be good) and note the following:

• The shape or form of the moon
• The position of the moon in the sky (high, low, above a tree or a building, etc)
• The position of the moon with regards to nearby stars (to the left/right of a bright star, between two bright stars, etc.

When you've done that over a week you should be able to distinguish between the "apparent" motion of the moon and the "proper" motion of the moon, but we'll discuss that at the end of the week.

Photo credit: Bob Larcher (photo taken with a digital camera "hand-held" in front of the eye piece of an 8 inch reflector