Phases of the Moon

Moon’s Revolution Around the Earth It takes the moon 27.3 days to revolve around the Earth. New moon to new moon phase takes 29.5 days (lunar month) http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/sidereal.html

What Causes the Phases of the Moon? The changing relative positions of the moon, Earth, and sun causes the phases of the moon

Does the Moon Shine? The moon reflects light from the sun. Terms to Know Filling up with light =waxing Emptying all its light =waning

New Moon The Moon's unilluminated side is facing the Earth. The Moon is not visible. The lighted side of the Moon faces away from the Earth.  This means that the Sun, Earth, and Moon are almost in a straight line, with the Moon in between the Sun and the Earth. The Moon that we see looks very dark.

Waxing Crescent The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. "Waxing" means increasing, or growing larger. Only a small, curved crescent of the moon appears lighted on the right side.

First Quarter One-half of the Moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is increasing. The right half of the Moon appears lighted and the left side of the Moon appears dark. The moon has completed a quarter of its journey around the Earth. Half of the moon appears lighted on the right side.

Waxing Gibbous The Moon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is increasing. The amount of the Moon that we can see will grow larger and larger every day.  "Waxing" means increasing, or growing larger.

Full Moon The Moon's illuminated side is facing the Earth. The Moon appears to be completely illuminated by direct sunlight. The lighted side of the Moon faces the Earth.  This means that the Earth, Sun, and Moon are nearly in a straight line, with the Earth in the middle.  The Moon that we see is very bright from the sunlight reflecting off it.

Full Moon The moon has completed half of its journey around the Earth. It has taken approximately 2 weeks. The moon is on the opposite side of Earth from the sun.

Waning Gibbous The Moon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing. The amount of the Moon that we can see will grow smaller and smaller every day. "Waning" means decreasing, or growing smaller. More than half of the moon is lighted from the left side.

Third (Last) Quarter One-half of the Moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing. The left half of the Moon appears lighted, and the right side of the Moon appears dark. Half of the moon is illuminated on the left side.

Waning Crescent The Moon appears to be partly but less than one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing. The crescent will grow smaller and smaller every day, until the Moon looks like the New Moon. "Waning" means decreasing, or growing smaller.

Third

First Quarter: 5th day, 1st hour, 13th minute Full Moon: 13th day, 2nd hour, 51st minute Last Quarter: 20th day, 5th hour, 20th minute New Moon: 27th day, 1st hour, 26th minute

Waning Gibbous Waxing Gibbous Waning Phases of Moon:                                                                                               Waning Gibbous    Last Quarter   Waning Crescent Crescent Phases of Moon:               Waxing Crescent                                    Waning Crescent Waxing Phases of Moon:                                                                                                      Waxing Crescent        First Quarter          Waxing Gibbous Gibbous Phases of Moon:   Waning Gibbous   Waxing Gibbous                            

Lunar Features

Characteristics of the Moon The Moon’s rotation and revolution period is 27.3 days so we always see the same side of the moon The Moon is ¼ the size of Earth The Moon is 1/80 the mass of Earth The Moon has 1/6 the gravity of Earth The Moon is 384,403 km away from Earth

Earth vs. Moon

Characteristics of the Moon The outer layer of the Moon and Earth have equal densities The Moon has no atmosphere The Moon has a temperature range from –233oC to 123oC The Moon has no liquid water and has no life existence The Moon’s orbit is tilted 5o

Characteristics of the Moon The Moon has maria which are dark, flat plains on its surface Galileo thought the dark, flat plains of the Moon were oceans so he named them maria (sea) The Moon has craters which are round pits on the Moon’s surface caused by impacts of meteoroids The Moon has highlands which are light colored mountains

Theories on the origin of the Moon Theory #1-The Moon may have been formed millions or billions of kilometers away from the Earth and later “captured” by Earth’s gravity Theory #2-The Moon formed from the same swirling cloud of gas and dust from which the Sun, Earth, and other planets are formed. The Earth and the Moon have similar composition of materials

Theories on the origin of the Moon Theory #3 is the most accepted theory-Collision Ring Theory-About 4.5 billion years ago, the solar system was full of rocky debris. Some of the debris was the size of small planets. Scientists theorize that a planet-sized object collided with the Earth to form the Moon. Material from the object and Earth’s outer layers was ejected into orbit around the Earth, where it formed a ring. Gravity caused the material to combine to form the Moon.

What is an eclipse? Sometimes during their orbits, the moon and the Earth form a line with the Sun. When this happens, an eclipse occurs. There are two kinds of eclipse - lunar and solar. Solar eclipse: The new moon is directly between the sun and the Earth. The moon casts a shadow on the Sun Lunar eclipse: The Earth is directly between the sun and the full moon. The Earth casts a shadow on the moon

Lunar Eclipses Lunar eclipse is when the Earth's shadow blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon. It can only happen when there is a full moon. The Sun, Earth and Moon all need to be in a straight line too. The Earth's shadow has two parts called the penumbra and the umbra. The umbra is much darker than the penumbra. When the Moon passes through the umbra, it is called a total eclipse. When only part of the Moon passes through the umbra, it's called a partial eclipse. And when the Moon goes through the penumbra, it's called a penumbral eclipse.

Times are Eastern Standard.                        18:17 18:33 18:42 18:58 19:05 19:20 19:27 19:36 19:47 19:53 20:01 20:03

Shadows of Eclipses Umbra is the darkest part of the moon’s shadow (cone-shaped) Penumbra is the part of a shadow that surrounds the darkest part/larger part of the shadow.

Solar Eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in a direct line between the Earth and the sun. The moon's shadow travels over the Earth's surface and blocks out the sun's light as seen from Earth. The moon phase must be new moon. http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2505/es2505page01.cfm?chapter_no=25                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                

http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html

Upcoming Eclipses http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/UpcomingEclipses.php Solar Eclipses May 20, 2012: Annular solar eclipse seen in Eastern Asia, North Pacific Ocean, and the Western U.S. November 13, 2012: Total solar eclipse seen in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific

Lunar eclipses June 4, 2012: Partial lunar eclipse seen in Eastern Asia, Australia, and Western North America November 28, 2012: Penumbral lunar eclipse seen in Europe, East Africa, Asia, Australia

Upcoming Eclipses that North America Can See Total lunar eclipse that North America can view will be April 14, 2014 Total solar eclipse that North America can view will be August 21, 2017

Tides Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

Spring Tides When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. A tide with the greatest distance between low and high tides is a spring tide.

Neap Tides During the moon's quarter phases the sun and moon work at right angles, causing the bulges to cancel each other. The result is a smaller difference between high and low tides and is known as a neap tide. Neap tides are especially weak tides. They occur when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another (with respect to the Earth).

Tide Chart http://www.saltwatertides.com/cgi-local/maryland.cgi

Day Time Height (meters) Monday 5:00am 2.5 m 1:00pm 7.7 m 9:30 pm 2.7 m Tuesday 6:30 am 7.5 m 4:00 pm 2.9 m Wednesday 2:00 am 7.3 m 12:30 pm 3.1 m Thursday 1:30 am 7.1 m 11:30 pm 3.3 m 11:00 am 6.9 m