[HPforGrownups] Full moon question for the folklorists

[Silverthorne]

No: HPFGUIDX 97488

Shaun:
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.

Silverthorne:
I'm up by Dallas, Texas--which is, according to my atlas, just slightly
south of the 33 degree longitude line. Tucson Arizona is about 3/4 south of
the same line. Houston is 'just' North of the 29 degree line. So I would
*guess* that's a decent leeway--a 3-4 degree difference anyway.

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

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

Silverthorne:
Oh, I'm not arguing THAT point--What I'm playing at is the fact that the sun
*is* up at the same time as the full moon sometimes--and that's what I'm
wondering about. The full moon is UP *before* the sun sets--and yet the were
wolf legends never seem to take that into account....so it still begs the
question--does the sun counter act the effects, or is it simply that
folklore doesn't take that into account since it's basically all about
'darkness' and 'evil' (something normally associated with 'evil' things way
back when the legends first started)? And if Rowling (or *any* author for
that matter) were to take the fact that the full moon can rise *before*
sunset (or stay in the sky *after* sunrise), then how would they explain the
descrepency? It's still a full moon--it's still reflecting visible light
Earthwards--so the werewolf would still see it, and would, in theory, still
be 'hit' with it. So why doesn't it make them change then?

Which goes back to my original post--what constitutes a 'full' moon for a
were wolf? If its number of days, then we have an inaccuracy (because Lupin
is not a were that whole time). If it's activated by 'the phase of the full
moon', then it's still inaccurate, because the moon is not always
convieniently full at night, high over head--and it further begs the
question of what happens to weres on the oppostie side of the planet from
the 'full' moon? Do they 'beg out' on that month since they aren;t actaully
expsoed to it? Appearently not.

And then, again, the ultimate werewolf question--if it's activated by
*seeing* the full moon--as most legends nowadays tend to ascreibe to (as
does Rowling with her cinematic treatment of Lupin changing when the moon
came out from behind a cloud), then the hole there is that they *should*
change when they see the moon--even if it's up during daylight
hours....which is why I ask....why is that not thought of?


Shaun:
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.


Silverthorne:
I would be interested, even if it doesn't make it to the board...one can
never learn too much...unless you live in the literary works of HP
Lovecraft...then it cna be a problem--for your sanity at least...;)