Why Does the Moon Follow Me?
Written By Kevin Markey
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The Kid's Answer
Jamie (left), age 4 1/2
"Because the moon likes me! And also to light my way."
What We Learned
Despite what Jamie thinks, the reason the moon seems to follow us is nothing personal. The moon-as-stalker illusion is created by the orb's vast distance from Earth: about 238,000 miles (that's about 2.3 million Washington Monuments, stacked on top of each other, if you can wrap your head around that), says Dr. Judit Györgyey Ries, an astronomer at the University of Texas/McDonald Observatory in Austin.
Imagine a moonlit summer night. You're on a long ride home from vacation, staring (a bit sadly) out the window. Your vacation slips away, but the moon stays with you for the entire ride. Because of its great distance from us, the angle at which we view the moon changes very little as we move — even if we drive 200 miles, it remains in relatively the same position in the sky. While we can't elude the moon, we can move beyond closer objects, like trees, telephone poles, and houses.
Explain It to Your Kids
Hand in hand with your child, walk across your yard parallel to your house, keeping it in sight, or, if you're in a city, point out a tall building, and head down the block. Small objects between you and the structure — patio chair, flowerpot, snoozing dog, or, in the city, parked cars, storefronts, and people — drop from view as you pass them, but the building stays in your field of vision, just like the moon would.
