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Yo Yo YoPhases of the Moon, Gee

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Earth Moon System

• The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384,404 km.– Closest approach is Perigee 356,334 km.– Farthest is Apogee 406,610 km.– 30 times the diameter of the Earth.

• Diameter of the Moon is 3475.9 km = 0.27 diameter of the Earth (12756 km)

• Mass is 1/81.3 of Earth.• Volume 1/49 of the Earth.

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The Moon• The Moon shines by reflected sunlight.

– On average, it reflects about 7% of the incident light from the sun.

– The Moon appears about 400,000 times fainter than the Sun in the sky.

• The phases of the Moon are due to the relative position of the earth, moon and sun.– A common misconception is that the phases

of the Moon are caused by “the shadow of the Earth on the moon.”

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Phases of the Moon

Phase Moonrise

Transit Moonset

New Sunrise Noon Sunset

Waxing Crescent 9 a.m. 3 p.m. 9 p.m.

First Quarter Noon 6 p.m. Midnight

Waxing gibbous 3 p.m. 9 p.m. 3 a.m.

Full Moon 6 p.m. Midnight 6 a.m.

Waning Gibbous 9 p.m. 3 a.m. 9 a.m.

Third Quarter Midnight 6 a.m. Noon

Waning Crescent 3 a.m. 9 a.m. 3 p.m.

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Orbit of the Moon

• The time it takes the Moon to go through its phases is called the

synodic period and is 29.5 days.

• The time it takes the Moon to orbit the Earth with respect to the stars is the sidereal period and is 27.3 days.

• The orbit of the Moon is inclined by 5 degrees with respect to the ecliptic.

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Lunar Lunacy

• Another common misconception is that the Moon affects the weather, the number of births, the number of arrests, and the number of emergency room admissions.

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Lunar Lunacy

• The astronomer George Abell studied the birth rate as a function of the phase of the Moon.– He looked at 11,691 live births at the

UCLA hospital between March 17, 1974 and April 30, 1978 and found no correlation.

– He then narrowed it down to the 8,142 natural (not caesarean) births and found no correlation.

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Lunar Lunacy

• The human female menstrual cycle averages 28 days, not 29.5.– If it is influenced by the lunar phases,

then all mammals should have the same cycle length.• Guinea pigs 11 days, rats and mice 5

days• Sheep 16 days, chimpanzees 37 days• Cows and horses 21 days• Opossum 28 days

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Phases of Venus

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Rotation of the Moon

• The Moon always presents the same face towards Earth.– Another common misconception is that

this means that the Moon does not rotate.– However, in order to keep the same face

toward Earth, the Moon must rotate once every orbit.

– The far side of the Moon is not dark, it gets just as much sunlight as the near side.

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Near Side of the Moon

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Far Side of the Moon

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Rotation of the Moon

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Mark Twain

• “Everyone is a Moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”– Mark Twain

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Misconception:Dark Side of the Moon• The “Dark Side” of the Moon should

really be called the “Far Side.”– The far side gets just as much light as

the near side. For example, during a new moon, the near side of the Moon is dark, and the far side of the Moon is fully illuminated!

– http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/dark_side.html

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Sorry Pink Floyd Fans…Roger, David, Rick, and Nick gotit wrong!

One of the best selling albums of all time!

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Lunar Libration

• You might expect that if the Moon always keeps the same face pointed toward Earth, that we can only see 50% of the Moon.– However, the Moon appears to rock back and

forth. This back and forth rocking is called libration.

• In its elliptical orbit around Earth, the Moon moves faster when close to the Earth and slower when farther. Since its rotation is fairly constant, we get to see a little bit around each limb.

• In addition, the orbit of the Moon is tilted with respect to the ecliptic, so we get to see somewhat beyond the poles as the Moon moves above and below the ecliptic.

• 59% of the Moon is visible to us on Earth.

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Misconception: The Size of the Rising Moon• Many people believe the rising

moon is larger than when the Moon is high overhead.– The Moon is actually slightly larger

when it is high overhead!– The effect is an illusion, however, the

illusion is not well understood! See these links for more details:

• http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/moonbig.html• http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/3d/moonillu.htm

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Moonrise

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Moon Illusion

Which circle is larger?They are both the same size!

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Interesting moon factoids

• In 1961 President John F. Kennedy said: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

• At 10:17 pm on July 20th, 1969 (six hours after landing) Neil Armstrong took his “small step.” He was joined by fellow astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin minutes later. Michael Collins orbited overhead. They were part of the Apollo 11 mission.

• Armstrong really said, “This is one small step for a man,” and not “one small step for man” as is commonly reported.

• No weather on the moon, no erosion, so something as delicate as a footstep will last a very long time!

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Here fishy fishy…

Some believe that the best fishing takes place during a full or new

moon.

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