Phases of the Moon

by Jeff Hutton

Hello, Astronomers! Well, I guess that this week wasn’t the best for Moon watching was it? I heard the weatherman on TV say that this has been one of our wettest springs ever. The clouds that brought the rain sure blocked our view of the sky most evenings!

Did you manage to get more phases drawn in on your Lunar Observing Record Chart? If you did I’d love to see how you did. If you can, scan your chart and send it to me at jeffp.hutton@gmail.com The best way for us to understand nature is to find more than one way to show that something is true, or at least likely. Last time, I showed you a model that demonstrates how the moon changes phases throughout the month. Now I want you to see a different way to explain these phases.

Try This. Ask if you can borrow a couple of things that you probably have around the house. First, find a ball. The ball must be round, a baseball will work fine, but not a football! Next, find a flashlight, the brighter the better. Now go into a darkened room or wait until night and place the ball on something that will hold it still, at eye-level and visible from all directions. Place your flashlight on another table, level with the ball. Point it at the ball and then walk around the table. How does the ball look from the same direction as the flashlight? How about when you see the ball in the same direction of the flashlight?

Check out the illustration below. Each of the four observers are looking at the ball that is lit by the flashlight. Can you draw in their circles what you think how each observer sees the ball? How does the ball appear to each observer?

Look at the illustration below. Instead of you moving around the ball, the ball moves around you-like the Moon! Using what you’ve already learned about the Moon’s phases, can you guess which phase the “Moons” below would show you as they revolve around your head? Draw the shaded parts of each ball below and write which phase is showing to the observer in the middle.

Illustration courtesy of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (www.astrosociety.org)

Finally, let me leave you with a beautiful picture by my friend, Steve, that shows the phases of the moon over entire lunar cycle, or ‘moonth’.

 

Click HERE for a printable PDF of this activity!

 

Next week: Eclipses!

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy Education

Hey, Check Out the Moon! — Continued

by Jeff Hutton

Hello, Astronomers! I’m back with this week’s ideas to help you get to know the night sky. I also decided that it was time to give this a name: Looking Up! How do you like it?

Last week I invited you to pay attention to how the Moon appears to change shape from night to night. We’ve had some cloudy nights but I managed to get a few drawings done. I fund that a penny works well to help me draw the line between the bright and the dark areas on the Moon when the moon is still a thin crescent.

Here’s what I did as of Wednesday.

Here’s how the moon appeared last week during one of it’s crescent phases.

Have you ever wondered what makes the moon seem to change its shape from day to day? We can see the planets and moons in the solar system because they reflect sunlight. Most of these are spherical, like a basketball. Astronomers say that gravity will cause most objects in space bigger than 200 kilometers wide (about the distance between Berea and Cincinnati) to be round, like a ball. Sunlight always shines on ½ of a ball. Remember our first activity when you made a solar clock? I asked you to notice how much of a ball was lit by the sun when you took it outside.

The moon is a sphere.  The bright part we see is part of the half that is lit by the sun!

I like to build models that help me (and other people) understand what we see in the night sky. Check out the picture below. I put a webcam inside a plastic Christmas ornament ball. We’ll call that the earth, in green, on the drawing below. I placed a golf ball to represent the Moon on a platform that let’s it move around the “Earth” in a circle. This is how the real Moon revolves the real Earth. I put another camera above my “Earth” to look down on my “Moon” and my “Earth.”

Now, the fun part. With a bright light shining on the model I rotated the “Moon” into the

New Moon position.

The sizes of my plastic “Earth” and golf ball “Moon” are about right, relative to each other. But my “orbit” of the Moon is way too small. In fact, if I made the circle the my “Moon” revolves on to the right scale, it would have to be 48 feet across!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my demonstration as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together for you! Think about this demonstration as you continue to track the ever-changing face of the Moon!

If you have any questions, please contact me at jeffp.hutton@gmail.com.

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy Education

Hey, Check Out the Moon!

by Jeff Hutton

First, did you get to see any of the Lyrid Meteors this week? As I write this, clouds are overhead but maybe it will be clear. Don’t forget to see the article from last week for meteor watching tips.

During the next week you’ll have a chance to see how the moon “grows” each evening. So, this evening, just as its getting dark, find a spot where you can go to see the sunset. I hope the clouds stay away for you! A little above the horizon and to the left (south) of where the sun went down you can see the thin crescent moon. Tonight, April 25, you will see the orange star, Aldebaran just south of the Moon. Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation, Taurus, the Bull, and this star represents one of his eyes. Also, you can’t miss Venus above the Moon. Look carefully at the moon. My mom used to call this a “fingernail Moon” because it looks like the thin edge of one of your
fingernails. Here’s a picture I took of the Moon in 2017 that looks like it does this Sunday.

I snapped this picture just before it was covered up by a dark cloud.

Read more “Hey, Check Out the Moon!”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy

April Showers

by Jeff Hutton

I’ve been staring at the sky for half a century.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen eclipses of the moon.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen eclipses of the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen bright comets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen a planet after it was hit by a comet.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve visited great observatories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve met lots of wonderful people.

But I’ve never seen a meteor storm. I’m not talking about your 5 or 10 falling stars in an hour but an honest to goodness 4th of July spraying of sparks, kind of event. If you’re my age, think about the lines from John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High when he sings about seeing it “raining fire from the sky”. But I never tire of the thrill of seeing just one pea-sized speck from a comet or asteroid leaving a lasting trail of light across a starry sky.

This April’s Lyrid meteor shower doesn’t promise to be a storm but it does promise to give you and your family a chance to share in an adventure you’ll talk about for a long time.

Read more “April Showers”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy

Check Out the Moon!

by Jeff Hutton

Did you notice how big the full moon was before clouds closed in on April 8? Maybe you heard someone call it the “Super Moon”. If you’d like to learn more about that, read this month’s “The Skies over the Pinnacles” or go to NASA’s website at www.NASA.gov and type in “Super Moon” in the Search Box. The moon always seems to be changing its shape doesn’t it? You might have also heard terms like “New Moon” or “First Quarter Moon”. Curious? Read on!

Read more “Check Out the Moon!”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy

Inquiry, Divergent Thinking, and Indigenous Knowing

by Wendy Warren

In the formal classrooms of the 21st Century, children rarely have the opportunity to explore the natural world, and they rarely have the opportunity to let their curiosity guide their explorations. This time when we are all asked to be healthy at home seems a perfect opportunity to rekindle the spark of curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world. I see adults posting on social media things they have never before noticed about the world around them, but in this time of slowing down, they have once again begun to notice.

Read more “Inquiry, Divergent Thinking, and Indigenous Knowing”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Community Education

Telling Time with the Stars

by Jeff Hutton

Did you know that hundreds of years ago there were no clocks? Just like now, there were people who were clever and they realized that the sun, moon and stars always rose in the east, traveled across the sky and set in the west. They also knew that certain stars were up at night only at certain times of the year and that the stars that were close to the sky’s north pole, near the star called Polaris, never set. These stars just went round and round Polaris like a big
wheel.
Just like now, it was important to know what time of the year it was so they knew when to
celebrate religious holidays and for farmers to know when to plant their crops. Would you like to be able to tell time without a clock, your watch or a smart phone? The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (astrosociety.org) provided the diagram below. Follow the instructions and you can tell “star time”.

Read more “Telling Time with the Stars”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Astronomy

Fostering Divergent Thinking

by Wendy Warren

Here’s a simple game to play with your family. Choose any object around your house— the simpler, the better. Perhaps you pick up an ink pen. Each of you take a turn sharing whatever you can imagine that object could be used for. You can imagine it far larger than it actually is, or far smaller, or just the same size. For example, pens have long been used as paper shooters—but what about as straws? Or maybe it could be a bridge for ants. Or a baton for someone leading a parade. Or if it was much larger, perhaps it could be a water pipe. You get the idea…Keep going until you absolutely run out of ideas and then pick another simple object, say…a paper clip, then start again.

Read more “Fostering Divergent Thinking”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Community Education

Why Inquiry-Based Learning?

by Wendy Warren

What questions did your family ask last week, as you went out and explored the natural world? How did you go about finding answers—and then going even deeper into the topic? As last week’s blog post shared, following your natural curiosity leads to some of the most authentic learning there is. Sometimes it takes a spark to rekindle curiosity that lives right at the surface of most children, but sometimes gets buried deep inside later in life.

Read more “Why Inquiry-Based Learning?”

Posted by Kayla Zagray Community Education