Lunar altitude.

[wheresthetorch?]

Forgive me showing my ignorance with this question! 

Should the moon not be at its highest altitude in December as the sun is at its lowest? Only it doesn't seem to be clearing the roof of my house, whereas I'm sure it did last winter! 

[Ags]

Almost correct. The full moon is at its highest in Winter as the full moon is opposite the sun. Other phases of the moon are not opposite the sun and hence have different elevations.

[wheresthetorch?]

So would December's full moon, for example, be at the same altitude every year (from the same spot on Earth)?

[BruceMarsh]

nice topic

[CraigT82]

29 minutes ago, wheresthetorch? said:

Forgive me showing my ignorance with this question! 

Should the moon not be at its highest altitude in December as the sun is at its lowest? Only it doesn't seem to be clearing the roof of my house, whereas I'm sure it did last winter! 

Not ignorant at all... thinking about this and trying to visualise moon/sun/earth etc.makes my head hurt!

[Waddensky]

24 minutes ago, wheresthetorch? said:

So would December's full moon, for example, be at the same altitude every year (from the same spot on Earth)?

No, because the lunar orbit is not in the same plane as the Earth's orbit around the Sun. So it varies up to 10 degrees if I remember correctly.

Good question though!

[wheresthetorch?]

1 minute ago, Waddensky said:

No, because the lunar orbit is not in the same plane as the Earth's orbit around the Sun. So it varies up to 10 degrees if I remember correctly.

Good question though!

Ah, that makes sense.  I guess the planets are also each slightly inclined in relation to Earth's orbit, hence them being lower some years (e.g this year for N Hemisphere observers)? 

I rather naïvely assumed the Moon's orbit and all the orbits of the planets to be on the same plane.

[Scooot]

Moon calendar app is quite good as it shows you it’s elevations at different times of the day.

The December full moon is actually slightly higher this year at its peak, but not by much. At my location that is.

 

[Ags]

3 hours ago, wheresthetorch? said:

I guess the planets are also each slightly inclined in relation to Earth's orbit, hence them being lower some years (e.g this year for N Hemisphere observers)?

Mars is in a relatively inclined orbit so this year it was particularly low for Northern observers. But in general Summer planets are low and Winter planets are high, as all planets orbit roughly in the same plane.

[wheresthetorch?]

3 hours ago, Scooot said:

Moon calendar app is quite good as it shows you it’s elevations at different times of the day.

The December full moon is actually slightly higher this year at its peak, but not by much. At my location that is.

 

Looks like a useful app - thanks.