We saw the moon going down rather than up?

Question

It was about 9:00pm and we stopped on a road to take photos of the moon. It was hanging right above the mountains in a crescent shape. The sky was cloudless and there was no wind, the night was calm.

We tried to take a photo, but all of a sudden the moon started going down. But it wasn't from a cloud! It was going down behind the mountain! So we never did get the photo because of that.

How is this possible? The moon should have been going up rather than down...so why was it going down?

Answer 1

The moon doesn't always stay up... it sets too. The Earth fast rotation is much faster than the moon's orbit around the Earth, so the moon doesn't appear stationary. Like the sun, the moon appears to rise and set in the night sky. Now, it will take a while for the moon to set, its not like it takes 30 seconds.

Answer 2

All celestial objects set in the west.  If it was a crescent, and it was 9:00 p.m., it was probably not long after sunset, and the moon was near the twilight, and appearing to "follow" it.  It would have been in the "waxing" crescent phase, which means, the next night, at 9:00 p.m. from the same location, it would appear a little bit "fuller,"  a little bit brighter,  a little bit higher, and a little bit closer to the south.  But it still would be making it's trek toward the western horizon.

Answer 3

  This happens to the sun at twilight.

Answer 4

It depends on the direction and the time.  If you were looking anywhere other than the west, it wasn't the moon.  If you were looking west, then it was doing what it is supposed to do, setting.

Answer 5

The moon was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing. Why do you say it should have been going up? You seem confused regarding the moon's orbital mechanics.

Answer 6

There is a time for going up? There should also be a time to go down so much so that the earth is round and the moon is orbiting earth.