What does it mean to say that the moon is in a certain constellation , such as Taurus?

if you look at the moon , when it is dark , does it mean that area or how would you see the area that is this constellation?|||Constellations are areas in the sky. They're bordered by imaginary lines, like countries. The moon changes position against the stars constantly. When it is in line with a constellation, that's when we say it is in that constellation.|||The constellations in our sky have specific boundaries, set by international agreement in 1930. Most are much larger in area than the full moon (which only takes up half a degree of the sky).


As the moon moves in our sky, it moves through different constellations.|||Two great answers above me. I'll try to give you an analogy.





Look outside, and hold your thumb out at arms length, and close one eye. Look at where your thumb is compared to the background objects and let's say it is directly in front of the red house. An analogy would be, "your thumb is in the 'red house' constellation."





Now move your thumb so it is placed in front of something else, say, a blue house. Now your thumb "is in the 'blue house' constellation."





It's not that the moon is physically in these much more distant star patterns, but, two dimensionally, it appears to be. It's merely an expression that states what direction of space, or what part of the sky the moon is "in" from earth's view.