Why does the moon only work nights?
The moon doesn’t just work nights, it sometimes can be seen during the daytime, however it tends to be much more visible during the night time for a couple reasons.
The moon doesn’t produce its own light, it appears to be giving off light, but this is just light from the sun being reflected back to the Earth, this means that only half of the moon is ever bright,
while the other half is dark.
If you study the diagram of the Lunar cycles or watch video link below you can see
that during the daytime we are much more likely to be facing the dark side of the moon,
also during the daytime the sun’s light is very bright, which tends to drown out the light from the moon.
In the nighttime we are more likely to be seeing the bright side of the moon and with no light from the sun, the moonlight comes through very brightly.
See for yourself: Make a mini-moon!
Grab a medium-sized light-colored ball (a softball or volleyball are perfect), a tall drinking glass, and a flashlight. Place the ball onto the glass so that it rests there securely.
Now turn off the lights in the room, and turn on your flashlight, pointed at the ball.
Move the flashlight around the ball, and pay attention to how much of it you can see as you move the light source.
It should look just like the phases of the moon!
