[HPforGrownups] Full moon question for the folklorists

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 97486

On 1 May 2004 at 22:28, Silverthorne wrote:

> Odd, because I have seen something at least close to a full moon during the
> day here in Texas, as well as when I lived in Tucson, Arizona--at about the
> same latitude....guess I'll have to see if I can't get a picture of it for
> you sometime. Or maybe its not a full moon but something close?

Well, the further you get away from totality, the more leeway you 
have.

I'm using Houston, Texas, for reference here, simply because I know 
it's latitude without having to look it up.

Let's consider tomorrow. Tomorrow the moon will be 94.9% full at 
moonrise at Houston - pretty close to a full moon. That will occur 
at 17:53 local time. The sun will set at 19:59.

So that's over two hours when a near full moon will be in the sky 
at the same time as the sun - low in the sky, certainly - at sunset 
it will have just reached 25 degrees elevation.

You can get that type of leeway. A nearly full moon, low in the sky 
a little before sunset, or a little after sunrise.

But in terms of lycanthropic folklore - when that happens, you are 
still definitely going to get a full moon during the night - it may 
rise just before sunset, it may set just after sunrise, depending 
on the circumstances - but it will be shining virtually the entire 
night. So there will be a full moon in the night anyway.

You won't get a situation where you have a near full moon in 
daylight *without* the night having a full moon.

To bring this onto Harry Potter - I'm currently writing a longish 
post attempting to analyse all astronomical references in Harry 
Potter - is there any real interest in this? I've done fairly large 
posts before (most recently looking at the match or lack thereof 
between what Harry saw during his Astronomy exam and the actual 
night sky over Hogwarts on that date) and a couple of people took 
me to task for posting it here, saying it was too long. I don't 
really agree but I don't want to annoy people unnecessarily.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia