Week #6 Earth Sun Moon

 1. What did you do in the lab today? 

In the lab, we took a globe and a smaller ball to resemble the Earth and the moon. There was a light in the middle of the classroom that modeled the sun. We then tried to answer the big questions in our group. We took the "moon" and moved it around the "Earth" to see what portion of the moon we could see. This helped us understand the moon phases. Next, we looked at the lunar eclipse. We observed that the lunar eclipse is caused by the alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon when the moon is hidden in the Earth's shadow. After this, we thought about the seasons. My group struggled with this a little bit. How can we see the seasons? That's when we were told that seasons and weather are not the same thing. We learned that the axis of the earth and its position in correspondence to the sun is what causes seasons. The last thing we did was take notes on a story Ted told us about astronomy. 

2. What was the big Question? 

How do the phases of the moon occur? What causes a Lunar Eclipse? What causes the seasons? 

3. What did you learn in Thursday's lecture? 

In the lecture, we learned about the moon phases and how you can predict them. For example (hypothetically) if the moon is setting and the sun is rising what phase of the moon are you at? The answer is a full moon. We looked specifically into the full moon, quarter moon (X2), and the new moon. We do not see the new moon because the half that is lit by the sun is the side we do not see. Even though a quarter moon looks like half of the moon in reality we only see a quarter because the moon is a sphere and not a flat object (this is the same for the other quarter moon). The full moon happens behind the earth because the sun hits one half of the moon which we can see. Moon phases come from where the sun is hitting the moon, or where the sun is lighting it up. 

Seasons happen based on the tilt of our axis and how close our hemisphere is to the sun, in summer we are closer and have longer days and shorter nights. In winter our hemisphere is further from the sun so the days are shorter and the nights are longer (it is dark longer). The longest day in summer is known as the summer solstice and the shortest day in the winter is the winter solstice. This is the opposite for the southern hemisphere. Equinox happens in spring in fall because the time of day and night is the same (12 hours). In the north pole during winter there are 3 months you do not see the sun while the opposite end which is the south pole has 3 months of seeing the sun circulating around them. 

Lunar eclipse and full moons are not the same because of math. In a lunar eclipse, the Earth is blocking the moon. The moon orbits us at a tilt. This means the alignment is not perfect when a full moon is happening which is why we can see it and it is not blocked. Lunar eclipses usually only happen once a year. 

Textbook questions: 

1. What did you learn? 

I learned the definition of eclipse. I knew what an eclipse was when looking at it but I never knew the real definition of it. An eclipse means when light is blocked. 

2. What was the most helpful? 

Something really helpful was the different names of the moon phases. We learned about waning (gets smaller) and waxing (gets bigger) in the lab but we didn't go over the phases in depth. So having a reminder was great. 

3. What do you need more information on? 

I could use more information on indirect and direct light. 

Questions/Comments/Concerns: 

A question I have is when and how do blue moons occur?