The Moon: Phases and Types

Today in class we learnt about Earth's moon... Here are some of the key takeaways.

The moonlight we see on Earth is actually sunlight that is reflecting off of the Moon's surface. Because the Moon orbits the Earth and the Earth orbits the Sun, the amount of the Moon we see varies over the month.

How much does the amount of the Moon we see vary?

The amount of Moon we see depends on the phase that the Moon is in. There are eight phases of the Moon which make up the month (29.5 days). They occur in this order: New Moon, Waxing Cresent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter and Waning Cresent.

New Moon:

rises at sunrise and sets at sunset

Waxing Cresent:

rises before noon and sets before midnight

First Quarter:

rises at noon and sets at midnight

Waxing Gibbous:

rises after noon and sets after midnight

Full Moon:

rises at sunset and sets at sunrise

Waning Gibbous:

rises after sunset and sets after sunrise

Last Quarter:

rises at midnight and sets at noon

Waning Cresent:

rises after midnight and sets after noon

What about eclipses?

During a lunar eclipse, Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, blocking the sunlight falling on the Moon.

There are TWO types of lunar eclipses: Partial and Total

Partial:

Part of the Moon enters Earth's shadow. To us... the Earth's shadow appears to be taking a "bite" out of the moon.

Total:

The Moon and Sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth. Some sunlight reaches the moon, it passes through Earth's atmosphere, filtering out the blue light and makes the Moon appear red to us on Earth.

There's also different TYPES of full moons! They occur each month...

Moon Type	Month	Info
wolf moon	January
snow moon	February
worm moon	March
pink moon	April
flower moon	May
strawberry moon	June
buck moon	July
sturgeon moon	August
corn moon	September
hunter's moon	October
beaver's moon	November
cold moon	December
harvest moon	September/October	occurs once a year and is the closest full moon to the fall equinox
blue moon		occurs every 2.5 years or the term also applies to a second full moon occuring in one month

What is a Supermoon?

Don't let the name fool you, a Supermoon isn't actually that "super".

It's just when the Moon is at it's fullest in it's cycle and is at the closest point to Earth (which isn't much closer).

This is due to the Moon's elliptic orbit around Earth. We see a slightly larger full moon... it's only about 6% closer to Earth than normal.

I hope you enjoyed reading this!