Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 5/15/2004

Question
Hi, I am doing a science project and it says I have to "Study the full duration of a moon rise and moon set". Could you help me out and tell me what this means?

Answer
Hi Lauren,
If you dont mind, just to make it a bit more exciting for you, I am just furnishing some sites where you will get the
info you need, instead of imposing my own ideas on what you need to do. Give that a try you will like it.
Some facts:
Moon Rise Facts  
1 - The New Moon always rises at sunrise.
2 - And the first quarter-moon at noon.
3 - The Full Moon always rises at sunset.
4 - And the last quarter at midnight.
   All subsequent Moonrises take place about 50 minutes later each day than the moonrise time on the day before.

Coming to your question, If what i understand is correct, you are expected to do the following in your project:
1 - As a fact item, find out the time it takes the moon to transit the horizon at rise and at set.

2 - Keep a ephemiris table for a reasonable length of time, ie for the complete cycle from one new moon to another (about 28 days).

Ephemeris is defined at the site: http://www.free-definition.com/Ephemeris.html
The entries in your table will follow the 50 minute steps as described above.
Please also use the sites
1 - http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/ which is an excellent site for kids to know all about moon facts. It has a section on rise times.
2 - http://www.eurometeo.com/english/ephem/id_LIRA this calculates ephemiris related values for european cities.
check it out then find out a site that covers all cities.
(just type emphemrides tables in google.)
Jayen