The Moon

17 September 2018
V science
• The revolution of the moon around the earth
makes the moon appear as if it is changing shape
in the sky.
• From earth we see the moon grow from a thin
crescent to a full disk (or full moon) and then
shrink back to
• a thin crescent again before vanishing for a few
days.
• The moon is illuminated because it reflects the light from the
sun. The part of the moon facing the sun is lit up. The part
facing away from the sun is in darkness.
• The phases of the moon depend on its position in relation to
the sun and earth. As the moon makes its way
• around the earth, we see the bright parts of the moon’s
surface at different angles. These are called “phases” of the
moon.
• The phases are named after how much of the moon we can
see, and whether the amount visible is increasing, or
decreasing each day.
Phases of the moon
• It takes our Moon about 29.5 days to completely cycle
through all eight phases. This is known as a Lunar
month. In the diagram, sunlight is shown coming in
from the right. The earth, of course, is at the centre of
the diagram.
• The moon is shown at 8 key stages during its
revolution around the earth. The dotted line from the
earth to the moon represents your line of sight when
looking at the moon.
• To help you visualize how the moon would appear at that point in the
cycle, you can look at the larger moon image. The moon phase name
is shown alongside the image.
• One important thing to notice is that exactly one half of the moon is
always illuminated by the sun. We need to visualize it in order to
understand the phases.
• At certain times we see both the sunlit portion and the shadowed
portion and that creates the various moon phase shapes we are all
familiar with.
• Also note that the shadowed part of the moon is invisible to the
naked eye; in the diagram above, it is only shown for clarification
purposes.
 New terms:
Satellite: A heavenly body which move
around the planets.
Phases of the moon: The waxing and waning
of the moon.
Lunar month: The time taken by the moon
(29.5 days) to complete its eight phases.
 Lunar Week Phases of the Moon
1st week Phase 1 (New moon) and Phase 2
(Waxing crescent)
2nd week Phase 3 (First quarter) and Phase 4
(Waxing gibbous)
3rd week Phase 5 (Full moon) and Phase 6
(Waning gibbous)
4th week Phase 7 (Last quarter) and Phase 8
(Waning crescent)