Summary
The Moon can appear in the daytime because it reflects sunlight and moves through different parts of our sky. Learn why it is sometimes easy to see and sometimes hard to spot.
You may have seen the Moon in the sky while the Sun was still up. That is normal. The Moon does not belong only to the night.
The Moon does not make its own light. Sunlight hits its surface and bounces towards Earth. We can see the Moon when that reflected light reaches our eyes.
The Moon’s phase is the shape of its sunlit part that we can see from Earth. The Sun lights half of the Moon most of the time. As the Moon travels around Earth, our view of that bright half changes. This is why we see shapes such as crescents, half-moons and full moons.
As Earth turns, the Moon can be above our horizon during the day. If sunlight reflects from the Moon towards us, we may see it against the daytime sky.
Air scatters sunlight across the sky, making it bright. That bright background makes faint stars hard to see. The Moon reflects enough sunlight for us to notice it, though it may look pale or faint.
What we see depends on the Moon’s phase and where it is in the sky. Near a new Moon, the bright side mostly faces away from Earth, so the Moon is difficult to see. A full Moon is opposite the Sun in our sky and is usually visible at night. Other phases can be visible during the day.
The exact times depend on the date and your location. NASA explains why the Moon can be seen during the day and how its phases change what we see.
Next time you spot a pale Moon in the daytime, remember: sunlight is reaching it, and then reaching you.
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