Night Sky: Moon Maps

This was the moon on 6/26/2012 at 10:20 PM 

My attempt at drawing the moon

I see the moon at it's greatest lunar visibility when it is at a far distance and higher in the sky, not exactly when it's right above your head but when you are looking straight ahead. 

The sun is at its worst lunar visibility when it is about to set because of all the obstacles around it such as clouds, blocking all of the moons lights. The sun in most cases  rises at 6:34 a.m., at which time the moon is 74 degrees above the horizon, almost overhead. Sun and moon will both be above the horizon until the moon sets at 3:03 p.m., although the moon will be hard to see for the last hour or so because of horizon haze. Altitude range is relative to the setting sun, which excludes all relatively trivial sighting events.

*** FUN FACT: Sadly, much of the world's population is not 

privileged to enjoy the amazing sight of the thinnest, shortest crescents because of poor air transparency due to dust, haze, humidity, pollution, chronic cloudiness, and other hindrances to observing the celestial sky.