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Post by Admin on Oct 27, 2023 2:40:41 GMT
My Guide to Understanding Moon Phases
What everyone needs to understand is that the Moon's light, and shadows, swipe from right to left.
Many students, and people, don't understand this - they expect the Moon's light/shadows to go from left to right - but it doesn't.
Just remember, the moon's light, and it's shadows, go across it from right to left.
When the moon's light is moving, swiping, from right to left, it is "waxing." If the light is moving across the moon from right to left, no matter what phase it's in, it's "waxing." So if it looks like a Crescent Moon that is going from right to left, it's a Waxing Crescent. If the moon looks like it is 3/4th or more lit from right to left, it is a Waxing Gibbous. If it looks like half a moon lit up from its right side and dark on its left side, it's a Waxing Quarter moon. Why isn't it called a Waxing Half Moon? Because the moon is a full sphere, half of it lit up is only 1/4th of it lit up since the moon has four halves - two halves that we can see and two halves on the dark side of the Moon that we never see.
So, if the Moon look's like it is dark on the right side, since it swipes from right to left, any phase of the Moon on it's right side that is dark, well it's in a "Waning" phase. If it looks like a slightly dark Moon on it's right side, it's a Waning Gibbous. If it looks like a half moon, which it is really a 1/4 moon, then it is a Waning Quarter Moon. If it looks like it is dark on most of it's right side and is a lit up Crescent on the left side, then it is a Waning Crescent.
The moon "Waxes" its light from right to left. The moon is "Waxing" when light swipes across it from right to left. If darkness is swiping across the moon from right to left, it is "Waning." There is generally only Crescents, Gibbous, and Quarter Moons (Quarter Moon's look like a half Moon but aren't).
Here are the phases of the moon to study. Quiz yourself on what "phase" it's in without looking at the description under it.
Michael, BS, MA
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Post by Kelly on Oct 27, 2023 2:52:33 GMT
The phases of the moon are extremely important and have a huge effect on the Earth and everything living in it the moon is my Zodiac planet
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Post by Admin on Oct 27, 2023 14:36:23 GMT
Thanks Kelly. You are so right. Of fource, the moon's Gravity causes the tides to go in and out. But more importantly, it's gravity on Earth keeps the Earth's poles where they are, thus keeping the equator and the entire Globe from rotating out of control. Without the Moon's Gravity, for example, weird things would happen - like the United States & Europe could end up at a pole or at the Equator, etc... Likely causing most or all life on Earth to go Extinct.
The Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, as it rotates Earth. But it is only like a fraction of an inch (or something) - I'd have to look up exactly how far it is moving away from the Earth, exactly. But not to worry, we'll all be long gone when the Moon finally flies off, in a straight line, into outer space. It will take many millions of years for it to do so.
In this article, titled "Will Earth ever lose its Moon," Scientists have calculated the Moon is moving 1.5 inches away from Earth per year. Also, in the link below, it says that the Moon and Earth will eventually get locked into each other via Gravity - at which point only one side of the Earth will face the moon. Also, the demise of the Earth-Moon system will actually occur when our Star, the Sun, "dies."
"In about 50 billion years, Earth's slowing rotation would make it tidally lock with the moon so that Earth would permanently show just one side to the moon, Jean Creighton, director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told Live Science. At this point, the moon and Earth would stop moving away from each other, Eric Klumpe, a professor of astronomy at Middle Tennessee State University, told Live Science.
However, about 5 billion years from now, as the sun begins to die, it will swell to become a red giant star, "at which point the Earth-moon system will almost certainly be disrupted and destroyed," David Trilling, chair of the Astronomy and Planetary Science Department at Northern Arizona University, told Live Science."
Will Earth ever lose its Moon?
Michael
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Post by ZandraJoi on Nov 6, 2023 16:48:40 GMT
I had printed out the Moon Phases & have a way for me to remember them. I use terms that make it more feasible for me. Whatever helps us remember is what's important
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