Does the moon orbit around the earths equator?
A little more than halfway down on this page is a diagram of the showing the relationship of the ecliptic to the celestial equator (and showing the earth tilted on it’s axis).
lunar phase illustrations Phases I get … this is different. The moon doesn’t rotate around the equator — it’s inclined by about 20 to 30 degrees. Well there you go … that’s it. It seems pretty counter-intuitive that it would be in such an orbit, but that will of course account for the variability in apparent height in the sky at different times of year. Thanks for the quick answers …
