2012hoax

The stars, Moon and Sun (singular) are exactly where they should be. Right after Christmas, the Moon indeed set in the west-southwest. Two weeks later (a matter of days ago), it set in the west-northwest approximately at sunrise. This is how the Moon has behaved for as long as humans have observed it. The cause is simply the orbital dynamics of the Earth-Moon system.

You can download any planetarium software (like Stellarium) and find where any object will be at any given time, relative to your location.

she noticed the changes in speed of the moon during the night

I don't even know what this means. How did she make this determination? Who else noticed? If the Moon changed speed, why is it still rising and setting right on schedule? Doesn't make any sense.

Over the course of a month, the Moon will be visible for different amounts of time. On December 26, the Moon was above the horizon for roughly 10.5 hours. On January 9, it was closer to 11 hours. Later this month there will be roughly 14.5 hours between moonrise and moonset.

Ihave read many stories about people who have seen changes in the stars, moon, and suns positions over a very short period of time (even just hours)..

Everything in the sky appears to move, because Earth rotates on its axis. Local objects like the Moon and planets are close enough for us to notice the consequences of their own movement. Other objects are so far away that they are referred to as the "fixed" background, even though they aren't fixed at all, but things still change position from our perspective due to our planet's own motion. If you are truly an "avid night sky watcher," I'm confused as to why this is such a mystery to you. Further, I'll give you million to one odds that none of these people allegedly noticing oddities are astronomers. If anything truly were out of the ordinary, why haven't any astronomers noticed?

Can someone please explain the possible cause of this, Ihave read many stories about people who have seen changes in the stars, moon, and suns positions over a very short period of time (even just hours)..

A first quarter (half moon) is a quarter of the way round the sky from the Sun. At this time of year, it will therefore occupy the part of the sky whch the Sun will occupy in the spring. Similarly, a full moon will be in the part of the sky occupied by the Sun in summer, hence rising in the north east, crossing high in the sky (in the northern hemisphere) and setting in the north west. This is what you are seeing at the moment.

If you observe the Moon regularly, you will soon become familiar with its movements. From one night to the next, it will move through about 25 times its own diameter - quite noticeable.

The Moon is constantly being observed from Earth and its position measured in order to verify the (highly accurate) theories of the motions of objects in the solar system. The lunar laser ranging experiment can measure the Moon's position down to a few centimetres. Believe me, an oddity in the Moon's motion isn't going to get past the people engaged in this work and be noticed instead by somebody glancing at the sky and 'thinking' the Moon is in the wrong position.

PS. Just in case you've come across the ridiculous pole shift and 'Sun/Moon setting too far north/south' claims of people like the followers of Nancy Lieder, my comments about the accuracy of measurement applies equally to the Earth's rotation and axis orientation. These pole shift nuts are claiming something which would be spotted by scientists even if the anomalies were a million times smaller. Why this never seems to occur to them, I don't know.

Ihave read many stories about people who have seen changes in the stars, moon, and suns positions over a very short period of time (even just hours)..

That is caused by the rotation of the Earth ;-)

Hi Raykel;

2 weeks is half of the moon's period of 28 days. Since the moon travels around the earth once in that time, and since the plane of the moon's orbit is about 5 degrees off of the plane of the earth's orbit around the Sun, and since the axis of the earth is tilted by 23.5 degrees to that same plane, the moon will vary +/- 18.5 to 28.5 degrees from that plane the equator every 14 days.

This is completely normal, and most likely the cause of the different positions you observed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill