The Truth

THE PHASES OF THE MOON ARE CAUSED BY THE MOON GOING INTO THE EARTH’S SHADOW:

The phases of the moon result from the revolution of the moon around the earth, and our observations of the hemisphere facing us, cycling through a day and night sequence. Only during a lunar eclipse will the moon intersect the earth’s shadow. The transition from the uneclipsed moon to the eclipsed moon takes about one hour. The phase cycle of the moon occurs in approximately 29 1/2 days. To demonstrate this, a light bulb and a small ball are all that are necessary. In a darkened room, allow the light source to represent the sun, the ball to stand for the moon, and your head will become the earth. Hold the moon in your left hand so that it is positioned between your eyes and the sun. You will notice the hemisphere facing you is in complete darkness. This is called the new moon. By revolving the moon in a counterclockwise direction around your head and observing the moon as it moves, you will see the moon progress through the waxing crescent phase (less than half lit), first quarter phase (half on, half off), the waxing gibbous phase (more than half lit--both limb and terminator appear convex), and finally the full moon phase (the hemisphere facing earth is totally illuminated). These phases will repeat themselves in reverse order (now called the waning gibbous, third or last quarter, and waning crescent moons) as the moon continues in its orbit around the earth, eventually moving completely into its own shadow to renew the new moon phase.

THE MOON HAS A HEMISPHERE IN PERPETUAL DARKNESS:

Nothing could be further from the truth. The moon has a portion of its surface (41%) that is never visible to earthbound observers, but all places on the moon experience a day and night cycle. When the moon is new and the hemisphere facing us it is not illuminated, the other hemisphere is in full illumination. A better term for the hemisphere not visible from earth would be the moon’s far side.

THE MOON REQUIRES 28 DAYS TO COMPLETE ONE PHASE PERIOD, AS WELL AS ONE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION AROUND THE EARTH:

The moon’s orbital period or sidereal period is 27-1/3 days, while the time the moon takes to complete a cycle of phases, its synodic period, is 29-1/2 days. The discrepancy arises because as the moon revolves around the earth, the earth is also revolving around the sun. In one orbital period (27-1/3 days), the earth has moved about 27 degrees in its orbit around the sun. While the moon has completed one orbit of earth, it is no longer in the same phase orientation. It will take the moon an extra 2-1/6 days of orbital motion until it has aligned itself in the same manner to be able to repeat the same phase. Therefore, a lunar phase period equals 27-1/3 days, plus 2-1/6 days, or about 29-1/2 days on the average. Rather than compromising between these two periods as most educators continue to do, it is better to emphasize the lunar phase period of 29-1/2 days. It is what we observe in the sky as we watch the moon cycling through its phases. The word month (moonth) is derived directly from the phase period. The phase cycle of the moon represented the first calendric systems used by early humans. It is also the most important time interval regulating eclipses. Solar eclipses can only occur when the moon is new, while lunar eclipses can only happen at the time of a full moon.

THE MOON DOES NOT ROTATE:

The moon completes exactly one rotation about its axis in the same period of time it takes to make one revolution around the earth. This period is equal to 27 1/3 days. That is why we always observe the same hemisphere of the moon facing us. To illustrate this concept, orbit around a person with your face looking in the direction of the person and one hand extended toward the person at all times. As you revolve around your partner, you will notice your arm also making a complete sweep around the room during the same interval of time that it takes to make one revolution. By remaining in the same location and completing one rotation, the room will appear to sweep around you in the same manner as before. The moon does rotate. If it didn’t, then your hand would always point in the same direction as you revolved around your partner. At first, your face might be visible, but in half a revolution your back would now be observed. If the moon did not rotate, all positions on its surface would face the earth during the time period of one revolution.

THE MOON HAS NO GRAVITY:

Any object which possesses mass (matter) has the force of gravity as a condition of its being. That goes for all matter: cars, baseballs, battleships, the moon, sun, planets, and all other objects found everywhere, regardless of whether they are large or small. The force of attraction felt by one object for another is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance to which they are separated. Isaac Newton put it this way: the force of attraction between two objects, F, is equal to G m1 m2/r^2, where G represents the universal constant of gravity; m1 and m2, the respective masses of the two attracting bodies; and r2, the square of the distance between the center of the two objects. When comparing the acceleration of an object at the surface of the more massive body, m1, the equation simplifies itself to a = m1/r2. When compared to the earth, the mass of the moon is 0.0123 of earth’s mass, while the radius of the moon is 0.2717 of earth’s radius. The acceleration of an object at the surface of the moon is 0.0123/(0.2717)^2 = 0.1667, or 1/6th that of earth. The moon attracts objects at its surface with a force of 1/6 that of earth. Therefore the moon definitely has a gravitational field which is noticeable when an astronaut is on its surface.

THE MOON APPEARS LARGER ON THE HORIZON THAN WHEN IT IS HIGH IN THE SKY:

This is called the moon illusion, and it is just your brain playing a psychological trick on your perception. You can prove this by holding a dime at arm’s length to cover the moon when it is in a rising position. A dime is about the same angular diameter as the full moon. Repeat the experiment several hours later when the moon has moved to a much higher position above the horizon to prove that the moon has really maintained its same apparent size in the sky. When rising, the eye sees the moon against far-off landscapes which may contain houses, trees, or mountains among many other things. Your brain knows that these distant objects would indeed look large if they were close to you. This psychological effect is transferred to the moon which is now made to appear bigger than reality by the brain. Another explanation is to say that when the moon is low in the sky, it will seem to be more remote than when it is high. If the images seen by the eye are of equal size, the disk, which is interpreted to be farther away, will look larger.

THE BLUE MOON IS REALLY BLUE:

The blue moon is not blue at all, since the light which we see reflected from its surface is only sunlight. A Blue Moon is really the second full moon which can occur during a month’s time. Since the phase cycle of the moon is 29 1/2 days, and a month has normally 30 or 31 days, Blue Moons occur very infrequently, about once every two to three years--in other words, once in a blue moon!

THE SURFACE OF THE MOON IS VERY REFLECTIVE:

Look at the full moon in the night sky. It appears bright, in fact brilliant enough to read the headlines of a newspaper by its light. The true tonal gradations of the lunar surface are actually dark gray to nearly black, an average reflectivity of only 7%, with extremes ranging from 3% to 30%. The lunar surface appears similar to a macadamized roadway. With about 93% of the sunlight absorbed by the lunar surface, the brightness of the moon is really a contrast difference between its dark surface and an even darker sky. That’s why the moon appears so bright at night.

WHEN THE MOON IS FULL, LUNACY REIGNS:

There is no statistical proof from hospital or police records that people are crazier, or that more crimes are committed, or that more babies are born when the moon is full. However, every nurse or policeman will tell you that this simply cannot be so. The misconception probably arises from the condition that the moon to the casual observer appears to be full in the sky for a period of four or five days around the actual full moon. If something weird happens during this period when the moon appears full and is visible nearly all night, then the blame can be "rightfully" attributed to the full moon. If there really would be a psychological effect attributed to the full moon, then there should be similar occurrences happening during the new moon phase. In both cases the moon and sun are pulling in tandem causing the greatest tidal strain to occur on the earth. No such phenomena are reported for the new moon phase.

 

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