The Lunar Phase

The new moon is the first phase of the lunar cycle. It occurs when the Moon and Sun are lined up on the same side of the Earth so that the moon is not visible from Earth. Next, the waxing crescent moon phase is displayed whereby the Moon’s surface is less than half lit up. The word waxing means that the light side of the Moon is moving towards the full moon phase. A person viewing the Moon from the Northern Hemisphere will see a waxing moon if any portion of the left side of the Moon is dark and the right side is illuminated. If the Moon is observed on consecutive nights during the waxing phase, they will notice that the light section of the Moon is actually growing during this phase. The next phase is the first quarter moon, which is often referred to as a half-moon because half of the Moon, the right side, is illuminated. The phrase first quarter is not used to describe the shape of the Moon but is used to express that the Moon has completed a quarter of its orbit around the earth. At this point, the Sun and Moon are at a 90-degree angle in relation to the earth. Next in the moon cycle is the waxing gibbous which is characterized by more than half of the Moon being illuminated and the left portion of the Moon displaying a smaller shadow area.

The moon is much closer to the Earth than the sun, so it exerts a greater gravitational effect on the tides.

Is there a dark side of the moon? (Note: this question can be effectively answered either yes or no, so it is important to explain your reasoning.) Some people refer to the side of the moon that we never see from Earth as the dark side. However, this is inaccurate since the far side is not always dark. For example, during the new moon, when the side facing Earth is completely dark, the other side of the moon is facing the sun, so it is in full sunlight. Since the Moon rotates at the same time it takes to orbit Earth, both sides of the

When people visit museums and examine the art of painters, they are able to understand that there is a story or theme behind the painting. Humans have the ability to know the symbolism behind the strokes of paint. They can comprehend the emotional turmoil of Van Gogh while he was painting, or see Salvador Dali’s imagination through his work. Music has the same ability to establish a story or theme. There are countless albums that achieve this. One of which is The Dark Side Of The Moon. Pink Floyds album criticizes the people who place values on worldly objects such as money, wars, and time, as well as trying to show listeners that mental illnesses should be taken seriously and not just cut out parts of their brain immediately.

This doesn’t occur because of the moon’s gravitational pull, like with the affect on the ocean’s tides. Instead, the moon’s own rotation affects the earth’s larger rotation because the earth’s gravitational pull keeps the moon at a slower rate (Stroud, 17). This slow moon rotation forces the earth to slightly slow down its rotation, as well. According to Stroud in The Book of the Moon, this slowing down is at a .0002 seconds per day (Stroud, 21). Over the course of one hundred years, a day will be about two milliseconds longer (Anonymous, website). If enough years go by, those milliseconds will add up to seconds, minutes, and even hours. If an astronaut finds himself on the moon, the difference in time is immediately felt because it takes so long for the moon to complete a full rotation. Mitton says that “a day on the moon is actually as much as a month on planet earth,” (Mitton, 10). As previously mentioned, tidal acceleration is caused by the moon. This acceleration also affects the Earth’s rotation by accelerating the water towards the moon (Rose, moonconnection.com). This causes the water to bulge. This bulge’s size and affects depends on its distance from the moon. “As gravitational force acts to draw the water closer to the moon, inertia attempts to keep the water in place. But the gravitational force exceeds it and the water is pulled toward the moon, causing a “bulge” of water on the near side toward the moon” (Ross, D.A., oceanservice.noaa.gov). This pulling creates the bulge’s size and applies pressure that affects the rotation of the Earth. Although the affect is not too visible in any other way than ocean tides, it will, overtime, cause the Earth to slow

The moon, similar to other stars, is in a perpetual motion. “The cycle of the phases and the Moon’s changing position against the stars are caused by the Moon’s orbital motion around the Earth.” (Thomas. Page 27) The Position of the Moon toward the Sun and the Earth determine its phases. In addition, when the Moon and the Earth are in the same line with the Sun, Eclipses can occur. During this Lab activity, I try to understand the phases of the Moon and Eclipses by studding the moon phase diagram and by simulating the Moon’s motions. The result of this simulation are presented in the next part of this document.

Rather than examine each moon separately I’m going to examine particular morphological aspects of all four at the same time for comparative purposes, after a quick introduction to the basic aspects of each

A full moon is the one of the phases where the entire moon is visible from Earth. In my moon lab data log, you can see that the that full moon phases do not last as long as the other phases. Log entry February tenth through twelfth, March eleventh through thirteenth and finally April eleventh through thirteenth. In the dates given you will see the day before, during and after a full moon. The full moon phases in all three months it shows that the day before and after the shadow of the waxing and waning gibbous returns, there is only one full night of this phase. At night during my observations some nights like on February eleventh the full moon just looked like a giant glowing ball in the sky, but, on the nights of March and April twelfth I could see the contours of the moon’s surface as well as a glow ring around the moon. When there is a full moon the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth compared to the Sun; that’s why there is not a shadow compared to phases like the waning

On Earth, we see only one side of the moon at all times. This is because the Earth and the moon are tidally locked, a fairly common event with planets and their moons. The moon takes 28 days to orbit the Earth and 28 days to rotate once around it's own axis. The result is that the same face of the Moon is always facing the Earth. The first time humans ever saw the other side, or the “dark side of the moon” {begin belting out Pink Floyd lyrics here}, was in 1959 with photographs taken from a Soviet spacecraft.

The phases of the moon are great things that happen in our eyes. These are things that God created for us to admire. I will be talking about the phases of the moon, how they occur, and describe each one. Enjoy my essay on the phases of the moon.

Eclipses happen when one planet/heavenly body moves into the shadow of the Sun/another heavenly body. This eclipse is called a solar eclipse. The solar eclipse of the is a rare occurrence, therefore solar eclipses happen every 18 months, which is two totalities every three years. During a solar eclipse, the Moon radiates two shadows onto Earth. One of the shadows is called an umbra. The umbra shadow becomes smaller as the shadow reaches Earth. The second shadow is called a penumbra, which gets larger as the shadow reaches Earth. There are three types of solar eclipses, total, partial, and annular. During a total eclipse, the Moon covers the Sun completely, but a total eclipse is only visible from a 150 km strip of the Earth’s outer layer. Areas around the narrow strip, the Sun is shown to be partially covered, and a partial eclipse is then seen. A total solar eclipse can only be seen by those who live under the shadow of the umbra. Same thing as those who live under the casting shadows of the penumbra can see the partial eclipse. A partial eclipse also happens when the Sun, Moon, and Earth is not accurately lined up.The partial eclipse cannot be precise unless the center of the Moon’s shadow, however the center of the Moon’s shadow is able to strike at Earth’s surface. The annular eclipse happens when the Moon is far from the Earth. Furthermore, the Moon then is appearing too tiny to the point where the Moon cannot block out the sun disk

The orbit of the moon is distinctly elliptical of 0.0549. The non-circular form of the lunar orbit cause variations in the moon’s angular speed apparent size as it moves towards and away from an observer on Earth. It takes the Moon 27.322 days to go around the Earth once. Because of this motion, the Moon appears to move about 13° against the stars each day, or about one-half degree per hour. If you watch the Moon over the course of several hours one night, you will notice that its position among the stars will change by a few degrees. The changing position of the Moon with respect to the Sun leads to lunar

Earth’s moon did not always exist. According to a theory known as the “Big Whack,” a roving planetoid, Theia, and the ancient Earth were on the same plane in the solar system. Theia, which is believed to have been at least the size of Mars, collided with the ancient Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago. The resulting debris, material from the ancient Earth’s mantle, is what is said to have formed our current day moon. All of the debris broke off of the ancient Earth and proceeded to fill the air. All of this debris then eventually congealed and formed a solid moon.

a. The alignment of the Moon and Sun determines the moon phase as the Moon orbits Earth.

The same half of the Moon is in darkness all the time – i.e. there is a dark side of the Moon.