How come sometimes you can see both sun and moon, moon half full in the sky at the same time.?

Question

When i was at my cottage i noticed during the day i could see a half moon and the sun in the sky. At first i thought maybe somehow a refraction of some kind allowed me to see the moon, the half missing part of it made me think this. I would've thought if they were both in the sky(and the earth out of the way for light) the moon should've been in full view.

Answer 1

the moon is the natural satellite for the earth which means it circles the earth while we rotate. So the moons placement varies on its rotation and ours. Simple physics really.

Answer 2

Easy, because the Moon is so close to Earth, that not even the Sun can fade its view. Stars, and other objects are too far away to be seen in strong sunlight.

Answer 3

When you see half of the disk of the moon lit, it is because the sun-moon earth are forming a right angle, so you see one half of the visable half of the moon illuminated (why it is called quarter phase).  And they will be 90 degrees different in the sky, so if the moon is high the sun will be about at the horizon.  The moon spends as much time in the day sky as the night sky.  It has nothing to do with it being night.

Answer 4

It's hard to picture this in your head -- I've tried, so I know.

The best thing to do is get a basketball, a baseball, a dark room (preferably with dark walls), and a lantern or wide-beam flashlight.

Move the balls around each other and you'll see it immediately.  The half-moon thing you described happens when the moon is off to the side of Earth.  (From the top looking down, the Sun-Earth-Moon makes an L shape)

The part of the moon you can't see is still there, but it's just in darkness so you can't see it.  Depending on conditions, if you look closely, you can usually see it very faintly, because it lights up with reflected Earth-light.

Answer 5

part of the earths shadow is on the moon a t this time

Answer 6

Because the moon is close enough for us to observe it during the day, even with the sunlight shining.

The moon is actually visible during the day almost as often as it's visible at night.  We just tend to associate it with night time because it's so much brighter and more noticeable then.