Another good video from Veritasium to explain the phases of the moon and eclipses. Maybe stop after the people have given their explanations for the phases of the moon and ask students what they think…
(And maybe stop it yourself there too, and try and explain it, before watching the rest of the video)
And here’s some Interactives to help explain it:
Manchester Childrens University
Got any other good ones? Share them in the comments below.
If the Earth were the size of a basketball and the moon a tennis ball, how far apart would they be? Diagrams that are not to scale make us think that they’re closer than they really are.
Have a guess first. Then watch this video…
Surprised?
Now try it with your class.
Update – Awesome high-res moon image here, from Bad Astronomer.
Here’s an interesting animation that will help to illustrate Night and Day as well as phases of the Moon on your interactive whiteboard.
http://www.ictgames.com/dayNight/index.html
I’ve also put together a quick animation that demonstrates how the moon rotates around the Earth. The Moon always keeps the same face facing towards the Earth (and so the same face pointing away). This down to two important facts.
1. The moon rotates on its on axis, it takes approximately 28 days to make one full rotation
2. The moon orbits around the earth. It takes approximately 28 days to make one full orbit.
In the animation below, I have coloured the moon to make it clearer. This is the view from above as it rotates.
As the moon rotates, it is also travelling around the Earth. The Moon has become locked into a pattern – the time it takes to orbit the Earth is the same as the time it takes to make one full rotation – approximately 28 days.
As you can see, as the moon travels around the Earth, it is also rotating. The Red/Yellow face is always kept facing towards the Earth. If we were standing on the Earth looking at the Moon we would only see the Red/Yellow face. We would never be able to see the Blue/Green face.
Another animation that may be useful can be found here: http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/en/a213-earth-moon-system-1
It’s the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo landings and there’s a lot of good stuff on the web as we hit the actual anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 (in about 30 mins time in fact)
WeChoosetheMoon is an excellent recreation of the mission in real-time. With audio and video links to experience the launch as it happened.
You can also follow Apolloplus40 for live tweets (well, as-live)
The Big Picture continues its amazing series of images with a set of pics of Apollo 11. Some awesome images that are well worth storing for the next time you need to teach about the Moon.
Microsoft have finally released the public beta of their World Wide Telescope project, and I just had to write about it. It’s a must for anyone who has to teach about space, or just anyone interested in astronomy.
Basically, its Microsoft’s version of Google Earth/ Google Sky and if you’ve used the Google version in the past then you’ll pick this up very easily.
The software provides a virtual planetarium and lets you study the night sky with great detail. Some of the images are astounding. You can also switch the view to study planets and moons such as Jupiter and Io.
When looking at the stars, right clicking will bring up a star identifier which tells you the name of the star (if known) and some information about it. You can even link direct to the relevant wikipedia page.
Maybe a quick activity would be to search for their star sign (I looked up Aries) and find the names of the stars in the constellation. Maybe even find out how far away they are from Earth.
You can also point the camera downwards and study the Earth instead just like Google Earth, although not in as high resolution. A nice feature is the Earth at Night view which shows just where all the populated areas are. Interesting to use for Geography perhaps?
This is highly recommended and would be an excellent piece of software for anyone who has to teach about the Earth and space. Download it from here.
Firstly, it’s had to google this without getting lots of hits for classic Pink Floyd albums. Secondly, strictly speaking it’s the *far* side of the moon. It’s not always dark because sometimes it is facing directly at the Sun and is well lit.
Anyway, the question relates to the fact that Moon always keeps the same face facing towards the Earth (and so the same face pointing away). This down to two important facts.
1. The moon rotates on its on axis, it takes approximately 28 days to make one full rotation
2. The moon orbits around the earth. It takes approximately 28 days to make one full orbit.
In the animation below, I have coloured the moon to make it clearer. This is the view from above as it rotates.
As the moon rotates, it is also travelling around the Earth. The Moon has become locked into a pattern – the time it takes to orbit the Earth is the same as the time it takes to make one full rotation – approximately 28 days.
As you can see, as the moon travels around the Earth, it is also rotating. The Red/Yellow face is always kept facing towards the Earth. If we were standing on the Earth looking at the Moon we would only see the Red/Yellow face. We would never be able to see the Blue/Green face.
Other Animations
http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/a213_l2-earth-moon-system-1.html
More Moon Information
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