3a_Moon_Project_Questions

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Feb 20, 2024

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Moon Project NATS 1740: Astronomy (online) 1 Part 5A: TTN Questions Reflect on the following questions based on your observations of the moon Through the Night (TTN). Type your answers in blue font between the questions. To receive full grade for the questions section, you should address fully all questions asked below. Changes in Motion of the Moon All of the following questions should be answered based on your own observations, and NOT answers found in the textbook or the internet or other sources. TTN -1 Through the course of one night, you should have taken a minimum of 4 separate observations of the Moon, spanning a minimum of 3 hours (from start to finish), separated by 1 hour apart. • Draw the path of the moon over that time with a dashed line through your sequence of observations, on the landscape. • Describe with words , below, the path you have drawn. ( Somewhere in your description should be terms such as “rising from”, “moving across”, or “setting towards”, and reference to compass directions as well a s left and right. Imagine yourself outside, tracing the motion of the moon with your arm. How would you describe that motion? There is no need to explain what you saw, just describe the motion clearly.) Answer: During my observation, the moon was mostly towards the west (r ight side of my landscape). Relatively it stayed in the same position but progressively dropped in altitude by five degrees. TTN-2 How much did the moon move? ( Words like “a little bit”, “a lot” or “an impressive amount” are not useful in science. Your answer should be given in degrees, based on your own specific observations.) Answer: After each observation of the moon, it started at around 164° and moved at least 15° to 20° further to the west. The moon also decreased by at least 2°, at the time I took the TTN, the moon was slowly setting in the course of the night. TTN-3 Explain why you think the Moon changed its position in the sky as it did, through the course of one night’s observations? Answer: The moon rises in the east and sets in the west, due to the fact I was observing the moon in very late/ early morning, it slowly started to change or shift its cardinal direction because it setting during that phase. TTN-3D: If you were to observe the moon over a full 24 hour cycle, what would your observation sequence look like, on your specific landscape ? (Make sure to include both the shape of the expected sequence path the moon would follow, and direction.) Answer: At around 9:00 pm, the moon would most likely be risen or be very low to the horizon. You would not be able to see the moon in the landscape picture. Three hours later (midnight), the moon would have raised even higher, it would be clear and illuminate, so it would be very clear and visible in the sky to see. Three hours after midnight, the moon would start to slightly descend,

Moon Project NATS 1740: Astronomy (online) 2 altitude would also descend towards the western horizon. In the landscape, the moon would be closer to the west side. Why would the moon follow this sequence, as described above? Answer: The moon follows this sequence because it has to do with the rotation of the earth on its axis towards the east. The moon rises in the east and sets in the west. Changes in the moon direction would be visible throughout the night. Changes in Shape of the Moon All of the following questions should be answered based on your own observations, and NOT answers found in the textbook or the internet or other sources. TTN-4 Did the shape or orientation of the illuminated part of the Moon change over the time of an observation sequence? If it did change, use specific and descriptive words to describe the change. Answer: During the observation of the moon, it was the waxing crescent phase. This is present throughout my observation, the last couple of hours the moon seemed to be more illuminated than before. TTN-5 Were there any other changes in the appearance of the moon over a given observation sequence? Were those changes due to the movement of the moon or to other phenomena? Answer: Besides the illumination, the moon seem to be moving and descending, this is expected as I took these pictures late night, and early morning where the moon is slowly descending. TTN-6 Explain why you think the apparent shape or orientation of the Moon changed or did not change through the course of one night? Answer: The moon stayed the same because the moon stayed in the same place or approximately the same place throughout the course of the night. No other indication of the suns lighting would have caused it to change its shape. Part 5B: NTN QUESTIONS Reflect on the following questions based on your observations of the moon Night to Night (NTN). Type your answers in blue font between the questions. To receive full grade for the questions section, you should address fully all questions asked below. Changes in Motion of the Moon All of the following questions should be answered based on your own observations, and NOT answers found in the textbook or the internet.

Moon Project NATS 1740: Astronomy (online) 3 NTN-1 You likely have observations that span several days broken up by cloudy nights or other interruptions. Ideally several observations were made at the same time each night, but this may not have happened (if you completed two separate sequences, at two different times). Your goal is to identify one or more sequences of linked observations on your drawing. • Draw the path of the moon over the days within the same NTN sequence with a dashed line through your sequence of observations, on the landscape. Make sure to indicate where the sequence starts and end, based on your observations. NTN-2 • Describe, with words , the path(s) the moon followed through your NTN sequence(s) . (Hints to assist in your description: Was the path essentially an arc up from or towards the eastern or western horizon, or was it essentially a flat path through the sky? Or some other pattern?) Answer: Essentially, there was a slight arc from closer to the east side to the western side of the horizon as you can see the moon was shifted towards more that directional path. • Which part of the ecliptic path in the sky did you see the moon in each of your linked sequences? (From previous discussions in our course we have seen that the Moon follows close to the ecliptic path through the sky. From Toronto, or any mid northern latitude, the ecliptic path is a broad arch including an eastern section, a section through the southern sky and a western section.) Answer: Based on my sequence of NTN, I realized that the ecliptic path would be the western section based on the night which was around 9:23 pm (moonrise) and the phase which was in the waxing crescent phase. This would be towards the moonset, the moon would descend towards the western part of the ecliptic path, eventually, being unseen. • Which way did the moon move along the ecliptic path from night to night ( NTN )? To the right - towards the west, or to the left – towards the east? Answer: Towards the west (right of the landscape), which was explained above. • On average, how much (in degrees) did the moon move from NTN, in your own observations? How did you get this value? (hint: this value should be coming from measurements of your own observations!) Answer: The moon moved about 10-15 degrees each night as well. Very similar to the other TTN Sequence. However, using my hand or in some cases, closely estimating the degrees as a measuring point. Each day, my hand would move by 10° degrees again. NTN-3 From night to night movements you observed, can you conclude if the moon is orbiting clockwise or counter-clockwise around the earth through the month? (Hints: For a linked sequence of

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