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Wednesday, February 7th, will be a day that gives everyone in the Americas a great opportunity to see first hand what the relationship is between the sun's distance from the earth and the moon's distance from the earth.
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Last month there were very good viewing days, and this will be yet another one.
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For those who want to know the truth, that is.
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The moon will reach its last quarter phase Wednesday morning at 7:55 in the Pacific time zone.
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That means it will be 10:55 am in New York and the Eastern time zone when the moon's phase reaches the last quarter.
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Central time will be 9:55 and Mountain will be 8:55.
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We know all this IN ADVANCE, whereas flat-earthers don't know anything about it in advance.
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This will be during broad daylight hours, all over Canada, the USA, Central America and South America.
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Why the whole western hemisphere?
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Because the moon's phases always show themselves the same all over the world, wherever the moon is visible.
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If the earth were "flat" that would not be the case.
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It also would not be the case if the moon were only a few thousand miles away from the earth.
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If the earth were "flat" you'd see a quarter moon in one place and a gibbous or crescent moon in another place.
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And if the moon were very close to the earth as flat-earthers claim, you'd see part of the dark side of the moon under it.
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But we never see the dark side underneath the moon, it's always on the right side or the left side, never on the bottom.
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Just one more day to go!
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Every month we are given two chances to test our perception for how far away from earth the sun is compared to the moon.
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We are given two quarter moons each month, a first quarter and a last quarter.
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Sometimes we get the last quarter early in the month and the first quarter later, and this is one of such times.
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But the convenience of viewing is not always so good as this.
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Tomorrow will be one of those days when it is really easy to see both the quarter moon and the sun in the sky at the same time.
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The only variable left is whether you will have clear skies so you can see the moon real well, and the sun.
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We can predict by the times shown what the position in the sky will be of the moon and the sun.
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The last quarter moon occurs at 7:55 am tomorrow morning, meaning the sun will have been up for one hour.
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The sun will be just coming up over low hills in the distance, or will be about 10 degrees above the horizon line.
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Since the moon is a quarter moon we know it will be close to a right angle from the sun.
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Therefore the moon will be at about astronomical 1:00 in the sky, just to the west of directly overhead.
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Of course, it will also be in the line of its orbit, which is currently 5 degrees north of the ecliptic.
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This will be as viewed from the Pacific time zone (UTC -8 ).
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If you're in the Mountain time zone, it will be later, 8:55, Central = 9:55, Eastern = 10:55 am.
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So everyone in America gets a clear view of the moon's quarter and the sun, if you have clear skies tomorrow.
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