Does Australia see the moon upside down? Radio astronomer explains why

The solar system is a true mystery that continues to baffle scientists all across the globe. As people try to decode the many enigmas, some unanswered phenomena, like the moon appearing upside down in the Southern Hemisphere, remain a topic of debate; but does the moon actually seem to have a different orientation in countries like Australia, New Zealand, etc.? Well, a report by BBC Science Focus says yes!

The report confirms that when people in the Southern Hemisphere look at the moon, it appears to rotate as compared to how it looks to those in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the BBC report explains that it doesn't mean the moon is literally upside down. Well, they say it's just a difference in perspective depending on which side of the Earth you are on. Now, imagine the moon is orbiting around the Earth along the same line as the equator.

So, for the people in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon looks like it's in the southern part of the sky, since they're looking south towards the equator. Going by this justification, the reverse is also true, as in, for people in the Southern Hemisphere, the moon appears to be in the Northern sky. So basically, people from either side are looking at the same object from opposite directions, and hence one thinks the object is flipped compared to the other.

Meanwhile, when u/tiednsassy shared an image on Reddit, explaining the phenomenon, the post received a mixed response on the platform. While some fully supported the explanation, others dismissed the notion, saying it's completely false. For instance, someone called u/dormilonsita commented, "When I was in 7th grade, I asked if this happened in Australia, and everyone just laughed at me. It got me the reputation of being a dumb kid, too."

However, a person who goes by u/skibblez_n_zits said, "This is not entirely accurate. I live in the US and knew about this before I took a trip to Argentina last year. So I looked at the moon before and after my flight. It's actually not a total 180-degree rotation, more like 90 degrees. It depends on your latitude. If you viewed it from the North Pole and South Pole, then yes, it would be completely flipped, but since you would be roughly halfway between the equator and the poles in the picture, it would only appear to be rotated about 90 degrees."

A user, u/no_echo_4732, shared, "Years ago, I was in Southern Argentina, and while driving around in the countryside at night, looking at the stars, I realized the constellations that I could recognize were upside down." Another user, u/no_care6935, commented, "Fun fact: basically, our sense of 'up' and 'down' is influenced by gravity, which pulls us toward the center of the Earth. No matter where you are, gravity always pulls you 'down' toward the ground, so you never really feel upside down in a way that confuses your brain. It’s all about the direction of the gravitational pull!" u/noerpel said, "I am Frakkin, a 52-year-old (European), a 40-year-old telescope owner, a planet observer, and someone who has watched a gazillion hours of documentaries about the universe, and I actually never thought about that."