What's the sun's path across the Moon's sky?

S

Senty

Veteran XX
Been working with a friend on SHIFTboston | MOON CAPITAL Competition 2010 and we were hoping to get an accurate guesstimate on the direction of sunrise and sunset on the Moon's South Pole. The school's Physics dept. basically told us to google it, but all the info we've come across so far is Earth based.

Anyways, here's to hoping one of you is an astronomy nerd and can lead us to the data needed.
 
this is a guess, but I would assume that if you were standing at the south pole the sun would move east to west at or near the horizon (as you turn about the earth).

Same for the north pole.
 
A day on the moon is something like 28 earth days so that's how often you would see a sunset and sunrise.

Not sure what the axis of tilt of the moon is, but the tilt, your location on the moon, and the position of the moon relative to the earth and sun would determine the actual path (much like the sun is low in the sky in the winter on Earth)

Edit: Missed the part about the south pole.
 
The moon rotates about its axis as well as around the earth every ~28 days. Neglecting the fact that both moon and earth orbit the sun, you would have a day that lasts 28 earth days.

As far as the path, that depends on the tilt of the moon, which is a lot smaller than the tilt of the earth. (6 degrees for the moon relative to its orbit, compared to 23 degrees for the earth, according to wikipedia)

If you imagine the tilt to be 0 degrees, you would basically just see the sun going across your horizon at a period of 28 days. Add some tilt, and now you will see the sun rise, skim just above the horizon for 14 days, then skim just below the horizon for 14 days. I have no idea if the moon's tilt is enough to have the sun go completely below the horizon and if so how dark it would get.

Edit: I think I got things a big mixed up. I think this response clears it up:
Wowbagger said:
If you're at the exact point of the south pole, the sun's just going to circle you every 28 days. The moon's axial tilt is very slight; during "summer" the sun will circle just above the horizon and during "winter" it will be just below it.

The axial tilt is small enough for there to be mountains on the Moon's north pole on which it is never night, ever.
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Aristocrat said:
there is no dark side of the moon really. matter of fact it's all dark
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It's so dark I can barely see it!

3.1223763300.full-moon-over-the-lost-city.jpg
 
wait...isnt the bright side of the moon always facing the sun? my first guess would be that the sun wouldnt appear to move much, if at all

but i dont know anything about these things and didnt think it through any more than was necessary for this post
 
SkivviS said:
wait...isnt the bright side of the moon always facing the sun? my first guess would be that the sun wouldnt appear to move much, if at all

but i dont know anything about these things and didnt think it through any more than was necessary for this post
Click to expand...

Well of course the bright side always faces the sun.
 
Baby Bew said:
Not sure if you're saying I'm right or wrong...
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Little bit of both. My original statement was a quote from a Pink Floyd song



So my contribution was pretty much worthless other then a reference for old stoners for amusement. It's been a long time since I took Astronomy but I did enjoy it, we had to record the waxing and waning of the moon which is pretty much as far as we went in that intro class. Calculating the tilt and rotation I don't remember and probably wouldn't if we had lol.
 
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If you're at the exact point of the south pole, the sun's just going to circle you every 28 days. The moon's axial tilt is very slight; during "summer" the sun will circle just above the horizon and during "winter" it will be just below it.

The axial tilt is small enough for there to be mountains on the Moon's north pole on which it is never night, ever.
 
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