Discovering Moon Phases 🌘

🧪 Experiment: Track the Moon Phases

Objective: Observe and record how the Moon changes shape in the sky

Background information 🧠

When you look at the moon on a cloudless night, it looks bright, but this light is actually coming from the Sun. The Moon orbits Earth while Earth orbits the Sun; this causes different phases of light on the Moon, and you can see different shapes.

There are 8 main phases during 29.5 days, and it changes like a cycle

1. 🌑 New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the Sun, so we can’t see the sunlit side.

2. 🌒 Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side.

3. 🌓 First Quarter – Half the Moon is lit up on the right.

4. 🌔 Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, growing toward full.

5. 🌕 Full Moon – The entire face of the Moon is visible from Earth

6. 🌖 Waning Gibbous – It starts to shrink, with light on the left

7. 🌗 Last Quarter – Half the Moon is lit on the left.

8. 🌘 Waning Crescent – Only a small slice is left before going dark again.

   
   

9. Then it repeats! 🔁

Astronomers have been tracking this cycle for thousands of years, and so can you!

Materials 🔭

• This printable moon tracker

• Access to SkyView or any moon tracking website/app

• Optional: binoculars

Procedure

1. Go outside during the nighttime

2. Look up and find the moon in the sky (if it's cloudy, search what the moon looks like and its phase)

3. Draw what you see and how the moon looks

4. Figure out the phase of the moon

5. Repeat this throughout the next 10-15 days and observe how the pattern changes!

Once you are finished,💖 quiz yourself here!

As always, find out what interests you and explore more on your own!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out !

Have fun investigating!💖👩‍🔬