MSFS SU13 beta 1.34.15.0
At the Equator … Airport SEQU
Moon Rise (contrast & gamma enhanced-- was in daylight)
Moon Set
Moon rise appears upside down to moon set – as in Real Life
So Asobo has this right as well 
(at least in latest SU13 beta)
So it looks as if both these issue about the moons rotation, have been addressed “By Corrected Design”, although I do not recall ever seeing any mention of the Moon, in any SU release notes.
Maybe will be in SU13 release notes – or has it always been correct ?
Isn’t the point to look at the moon from both the North Hemisphere and the south Hemisphere “at the same UTC time” and compare them at that same time.
Wherever you are, as the moon rises and sets, it appears to turn upside down, so there is no such thing as “the permanent right way up” for the moon, based on which hemisphere you view it from.
I admit, I knew NOTHING about this, till I started to do some research – personally it has never been something I was aware of, or cared much about - but that is another aspect of Flight Sims, – its can open up all sort of interesting facts – its not ALL about actually “FLYING”.
I’m in the same position as you, knowing nothing (or not much anyway) about this until starting to think about it.
Won’t the amount the moon ‘turns upside down’ depend on latitude? In my head, the moon viewed from close to either pole will have a relatively consistent orientation because it’s going ‘around’ you.
Conversely, for an observer near the equator the orbit of the moon makes it rise and go over their head before setting. Hence it rising and setting with apparently opposite orientations.
Yes, correct, it varies by latitude, and that is represented in the sim.
Astronomical phenomena are not very accurately depicted in the sim.
The upcoming solar eclipse in October for example, does happen in the sim, but where it should be a total, it only appears as a partial solar eclipse.
The moon orientation is not perfect either, even though the problem presented here either never existed or has been fixed, the orientation is a bit off when you compare it very closely, the moon seems to be missing effects such as libration.
But to be honest, since this is a flight simulator and not a planetarium app, I think what we have is pretty good, you get accurate moon phases sunrise and sunset, stars are in the correct place etc.
It may be a small thing, but it should also be simple to implement.
I could reproduce this issue originally and tested it when I made my above post and verified it fixed. So it’s nice to see all kinds of little things being worked on in the background. I’m kind of curious on the original cause. I’m guessing, the “astronomical dome” was drawn around the user and celestial objects requiring a texture, like the moon, were billboards on this sky sphere. So everything was in the right astronomical location, but the orientation of the camera (user’s up direction) maybe wasn’t factored in?
You can make it work for a flat earth model. Say if the moon is a disc close to the flat earth over the equator. Then our observers in England and South Africa see the moon’s face inverted switching between their positions. These people will go way down the rabbit hole to make rationalizations for their beliefs. Of course lots of folks do that to defend their irrational beliefs.
you will never be able to travel to the moon in MSFS - therefore there is no reason to fully map out an entire celestial body.
As long as the moon’s actual position is correct - then it lines up when needed for navigation purposes.
