Go Out:  Look Up!

A Guide to the Sky, Telescopes, and Telescope Programs

The Yes Watch as a Moon Finder

That the 24-hr Hand points to the Sun is somewhat obvious:

Make sure the Sunrise and Sunset are level (Solar High Noon is straight up).  The 24-hr Hand points to the sun - day and night.

What wasn't immediately obvious to me was that the 24-hr Hand points to the moon, too (I was thinking "It would be cool if it had a Lunar Hand").  I owned the watch for less than a day before I realized the capability.  Basically the lag between the sun and the moon is represented by the lag between the day/night display and the Moonrise/Moonset display. 

Here is the same watch at the same time, pointing to the moon.

Note that I did not have to touch the watch at all: I simply had to tilt it!  Here's the secret: simply Level the Moonrise and Moonset on the LCD Ring:

The Lunar phase of course matches what is on the watch.

Personally, digital readouts of the sun and moon rise and set times are too abstract for me.  Having a point show me where they're at, day and night, 24/7, without having to touch anything means I'll never again feel the shame of not knowing where these bodies are.  I used to lose the moon for weeks (I generally lost it every Last Quarter until a waxing crescent).

Here it is in practice:

Finding a two-day old crescent moon in a day filled with cirrus clouds was harder than I thought.  Photographing it was even harder (my shots around noon didn't show at all).   In any case, I don't think I could have found the moon without the watch.  And, yes, a smartphone app would work fine, but I always have the watch on, it only needs charging every few years (replace battery), and I didn't have to push any buttons to get instant gratification.

A final shot of the moon:

The Yes Watch manual describes how to find south by the sun (point the 24-hour Hand to the Sun, Solar High Noon points south).  You can find South by the Moon the same way.  Point the 24-hour Hand to the Moon, Lunar High Noon points south (rotate the watch to level out the Moonrise and Moonset times).

Questions or comments? Email:Jeff Martin