So for today’s technical question Doris – Why, in your moon photos, and in mine from MN, is the half and the crescent sideways, but here [United Arab Emeriates], the moon presents as a laugh or a smile respectively? Is it the latitude? (I know you don’t have time probably to research this, but perhaps you just know). Or does anybody reading this know?The orientation of the crescent moon depends on the latitude of the person observing it (the size of the crescent, however, is the same wherever you are). Think about a crescent moon as seen from the Northern hemisphere, and the same Moon as seen from the Southern hemisphere; if we take the people in the Northern hemisphere as “right-side up”, then those in the southern hemisphere are “upside-down”, since the Earth is spherical. Since the existence of the crescent Moon depends only on the relative locations of the Moon, Earth and Sun (and not on one’s location on the Earth), the Moon seen in the Southern hemisphere is upside down when compared to that seen in the Northern hemisphere. This means that if the concave part of the crescent points “left” in North, it will point “right” in the South. Since the transition from a “left” pointing crescent to a “right” pointing one must be smooth, we require that the Moon be a “boat” instead of a crescent at the equator.
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