Where is the moon
Moon Phases Demonstration
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hi my name is emily morgan and i'm the
author of next time you see the moon
from NSTA kids and i'd like to share a
simple activity with you that can help
you understand why the moon looks
different at different times throughout
the month why sometimes it looks like a
banana and other times it looks like
half of a circle and other times it
looks like a big round ball well do this
activity you only need four simple
things you need a lamp with the shade
removed a white foam ball a pencil and a
darkroom the darker the room the better
now in this model the lamp is going to
represent the Sun and of course the
white foam ball is going to represent
the moon and your head is going to
represent the earth so let me show you
how this works we know that the moon
orbits the earth so in this model I'm
going to get the moon the foam ball to
orbit the earth my head notice that no
matter where the moon is in its orbit
half of it is always lit up by the Sun
but when in the moon is in this position
I can't see any of the lighted side of
the moon from Earth my head from this
angle you can see what I am seeing from
Earth we call this new moon when it's
new moon we look up at the sky and we
can't see the moon it's there but the
side that's reflecting sunlight is away
from us now as I slowly make the moon
orbit to my left I can begin to see a
tiny sliver of that lighted side we call
that a crescent moon as the moon keeps
orbiting we can see more and more of
that lighted side we see half of the
lighted half which is a quarter moon in
this case a first quarter moon as we
keep orbiting we see almost the whole
lighted side we call that a gibbous moon
then when we can see the entire light at
half of the moon that's a full moon as
the moon continues in its orbit we begin
to see less and less of that lighted
side we're back to a gibbous moon but
this time the light is on the opposite
side
then another quarter moon last quarter
moon to be exact
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another crescent and finally back to new
moon and the cycle begins again
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so why does the moon appear in different
shapes throughout the month because of
its orbit the shape or phase of the moon
depends on where it is in its orbit
around Earth it takes about a month for
the moon to orbit the Earth so when you
look up at the moon today know that
you'll see that same phase again about a
month from now thank you for watching
and I hope you give this activity a try
and I hope that you have a sense of
wonder next time you see the moon or a
full description of this activity and
other resources for teaching about moon
phases go to WWN sta org slash next time
- moon there our moon calendars and
other science and reading activities
there for more information about the
next time you see book series visit
www.mptv.org
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