Eclipses and the Moon

Eclipses and the Moon

1. The phases of the moon

   • The moon doesnt glow itself it reflects light from the Sun. Only the half facing the sun is lit up. leaving the other half in shadow. As the moon orbits the earth we see different amounts of the moons dark and lit up surfaces. You see a full moon when the whole of the lit up surface is facing the earth and a new moon when the dark half faces us.

2. Eclipses happen when light from the sun is blockeed

   • LUNAR ECLIPSE: As the earth orbits the moon sometimes passes into the earths shadow. The earth blocks sunlight from the moon, so almost no light is reflected from the moon and it seems to disappear. A partial lunar eclipse is when the moon is not totally in the earths shadow
   • SOLAR ECLIPSE: When the moon blocks the sun, from some parts of earth the sun is compeltely blocked. In most places it is only a partial solar eclipse

3. Eclipses Dont Happen very Often

   • The moon orbit the earth at an angle to earths orbit around the sun, so most of the time the sun moon and earth dont line up. Even when they do occur they can only be seen from certain places on earth