Why can you sometimes see the sun and the moon in the sky?

Any clear morning this week around 10 a.m. you can see the moon riding high in the western sky. Many people are surprised to see the moon in full daylight, yet it is a completely normal occurrence. A very common misconception in astronomy is that the moon is directly opposite the sun in the sky. read more

The rest of the month it can be anywhere from 0 to180 degrees away and, at least in theory, visible in the daytime sky. At full moon, the moon is exactly opposite the sun. This means that the moon rises just as the sun is setting, and sets just as the sun is rising. This is also the only night in the month when a lunar eclipse can happen. read more

We can see the sun and moon at the same time sometimes because the moon and the sun are on different plains. The moon orbits Earth and the Earth orbits the sun. The moon doesn't play by our sense of time, the sun does determines day, but the moon does not determine night. read more