ASTRONOMY
The moon moves counterclockwise around the Earth.
North Carolina gets sun before California.
Earth's axis is tilted relative to the plane of its orbit.
As the moon is progressing from a New Moon to a Full Moon, it is called waxing. When it gets smaller, moving from the phase of a Full Moon to that of a New Moon, it is known as waning.
One cycle takes 29 days.
The moon is always half way lit by the sun.
During the course of one night, the moon appears to move overhead because we rotate on our axis.
2 Major misconceptions about the moon:
New Moon (not seen), Waxing Crescent, 1st Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, 3rd Quarter, Waning Crescent
The moon moves counterclockwise around the Earth.
North Carolina gets sun before California.
Earth's axis is tilted relative to the plane of its orbit.
As the moon is progressing from a New Moon to a Full Moon, it is called waxing. When it gets smaller, moving from the phase of a Full Moon to that of a New Moon, it is known as waning.
One cycle takes 29 days.
The moon is always half way lit by the sun.
During the course of one night, the moon appears to move overhead because we rotate on our axis.
2 Major misconceptions about the moon:
- An explanation using the shadow of the earth...The shadow of the earth is only an issue in the rare event of a lunar eclipse.
- Another misconception is that the moon is not visible during the day. It is!
New Moon (not seen), Waxing Crescent, 1st Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, 3rd Quarter, Waning Crescent
![Picture](/uploads/2/3/0/3/23036350/1380738977.jpg)
<--- This is the view from outer space, above the North Pole. The sun always shines on the same half of the moon, it just looks different to us, here on Earth because we have a different perspective.
To model how we see the moon from Earth, we used styrofoam balls on wooden sticks. One person stood still and pretended to be the Earth. The other person held the moon up and walked counterclockwise around them. It works great to use the projector as the sun. (You could also have someone hold up a flashlight.) This activity allows the person who is the Earth to see the different phases of the moon being lit up on the styrofoam ball.
Aurora Explained http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/northernlights.html