The Moon is visible during the day because it is bright enough to shine through the blue sky, and over a lunar cycle it spends about as many hours above the horizon in daylight as at night. It is easiest to find on afternoons near first quarter and on mornings near last quarter.
Key facts
- The Moon's rise time moves about 50 minutes later each day, so it rises at every hour of the clock over a cycle.
- Waxing phases are in the afternoon sky; waning phases are in the morning sky.
- The daytime Moon looks pale because sunlit blue sky lies between you and the Moon.
- A full moon is opposite the Sun, so you only see it in daylight at sunrise or sunset.
Why is the Moon up during the day?
The Moon is above the horizon for roughly half of every day, and its rise time moves about 50 minutes later each day, so over 29.5 days it rises at every hour of the clock and spends many of its hours above the horizon in daylight.
Averaged over a month, those hours fall in daytime about as often as at night, with the balance shifting by season and latitude. NASA describes the daytime Moon as often visible “as a faint, pale presence”. The Moon only seems to belong to the night because it is the brightest object in the night sky, while in daylight it competes with a bright blue background.
The daily drift is explained in the article on why the moon rises later each day, and the exact hours for your location are on the page of moonrise and moonset times.
Which moon phases can you see in the daytime?
Every phase except the new moon can be seen in daylight: waxing phases in the afternoon, waning phases in the morning, and the full moon only near sunrise and sunset.
| Phase | When it is in the daytime sky | Where to look (Northern Hemisphere) |
|---|---|---|
| New moon | Not visible: too close to the Sun | – |
| Waxing crescent | Afternoon, following the Sun | A short way east of the Sun, setting after it |
| First quarter | Afternoon | Rising in the east around noon, in the southeast by late afternoon |
| Waxing gibbous | Late afternoon | Low in the east |
| Full moon | Only around sunrise and sunset | Low in the west at sunrise, low in the east at sunset |
| Waning gibbous | Morning | Low in the west |
| Last quarter | Morning | High in the south around sunrise, sinking toward the west by noon |
| Waning crescent | Morning, ahead of the Sun | A short way west of the Sun, rising before it |
In the Southern Hemisphere, read north for south. The week around the first quarter moon is the easiest time to look: the Moon is half lit, well away from the Sun’s glare and up all afternoon. The guide to the phases of the moon explains why each phase keeps the hours it does.
Why does the daytime Moon look pale or blue-white?
The daytime Moon looks pale because you see it through the sunlit sky: air molecules scatter blue sunlight in all directions, and that blue light, lying between you and the Moon, adds to the Moon’s own light and washes out its contrast.
This scattering, called Rayleigh scattering, affects short blue wavelengths far more than red ones, which is also why the sky is blue. The Moon’s surface is no brighter by day than by night, but the air in front of it is now lit by the Sun. The bright lunar highlands still look white, while the darker plains (maria) take on the sky’s blue tint, because there the sky’s light makes up a larger share of what reaches your eye.
Near the horizon the effect reverses. At sunrise or sunset the Moon’s light passes through much more air, which scatters away the blue and leaves the Moon looking yellow or orange.
Why can’t you see a full moon at noon?
A full moon sits opposite the Sun in the sky, so while the Sun is up the full moon is below the horizon. You can see the two together only around sunrise and sunset, low on opposite horizons.
For most places on Earth the full moon rises about the time of sunset and sets about the time of sunrise. Atmospheric refraction lifts both the Sun and the Moon slightly near the horizon, so there can be a few minutes when a nearly full Moon is still setting in the west as the Sun rises in the east.
A day or two before full, the waxing gibbous Moon is already up in the late afternoon, which is the closest you will get to a full moon in a daylight sky. The next full moon page gives the date, so you can look on the afternoons before it.
How do you explain the daytime Moon to children?
The simplest answer for a child is that the Moon never switches off: it is always out there, traveling around Earth about once a month, and on many days it is in the sky while the Sun is up.
The Moon makes no light of its own. Moonlight is sunlight bouncing off the Moon’s surface, so the Moon can shine by day just as well as by night. In the daytime the sky is bright and blue, so the Moon looks pale, but anyone who knows where to look can find it.
A good activity is a Moon diary for one week, starting a few days after new moon. Each afternoon, look toward the south and southeast, draw the Moon’s shape and note the time. Over the week the drawings show the Moon growing and moving farther from the Sun.
The week around last quarter works the same way in the morning sky before school. Check the moon phase today page first to see whether the Moon is in its afternoon (waxing) or morning (waning) half of the cycle.