I have some corrections to make, that might make my message in this thread even more difficult to follow. Therefore I asked the moderator to remove my two posts of the 11 and 12 Nov, so I can enter a better and more coherent post. As he hasn't done so, I have no better option than to post some corrections in one or a few new posts.
Here I comment upon my post of the 11 Nov:
Skalman wrote:I assume Brian Keat's suggestion is based on the changes in how high the Moon raises in the sky each day. At the equator there will be two peaks per cycle rather than one.
What about close to the equator then? I tried to think about this. The Earth's orbit
Correction: I mean the Moon's orbit
is tilted 5 deg from the ecliptic, but in what direction? Is it tilted directly towards the Earth's axis or directly away from it or something in between (if you see what I mean)? Or is it not constantly oriented with respect to the Earth's axis? I tried to google this, but found no good enough resource. (E.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon does not give any answer as far as I can see.) But I think it is at least part of the time tilted towards the Earth axis, because the Moon can stand higher in the sky than the Sun, at 60 deg Northern latitude. Anyway if I assume that it is always tilted directly towards the Earth's axis,
I have now found better information, both at Wikipedia and in other places.
If you try to follow this, it can be helpful to view this drawing (where "Earth Orbit"=the ecliptic)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earth-Moon.PNG
(I can post more links if there is interest. )
Conckusion is that the Moon's orbit rotates around Earth (with respect/reference to fixed stars) with a rotational period of 18.6 years. Hence the tilt of Moon's orbit in relation to the ecliptic will also vary, from abt plus 5 deg to minus 5 deg.
BUT the ascension-descension of the Moon is relative to the celestial equator (which is an extension of the Earth's equatorial plane) and not relative to the ecliptic, as I thought when I wrote two posts on the 11 and 12 Nov. As the celestial equator is quite heavily tilted relative to the ecliptic (23 deg) the net tilting of the Moon's orbit reltive to the celestial equator will always be in the same direction, giving an ascension through Sagittarius to Taurus, with a slope varying between 18 and 28 deg.
The consequences of this I have to ponder some more. Meanwhile I suggest that you take the following conclusions as of 11 Nov with a handful of salt.
then a little thinking and drawing gives me the preliminary result that locations further south than 5 deg lat can betreated as southern hemisphere, and locations further north than 5 deg lat can be treated as northern hemi, but for locations between 5 deg south and 5 deg north, but not exactly at the equator, the rule for the planting times will be something between Brian Keat's equator rule and the ordinary northern or southern hemisphere rules. (I am not sure of this, it is preliminary!)
More importantly, I doubt that there will be any noticeable effect at all near or at the equator, because the highest elevation of the moon during the moon day will vary so little during a moon cycle. At the equator it will vary between zero and five degrees from zenith, if I am not mistaken.