Observational Knowledge Lab

Observational Knowledge Lab Report

Our moon makes a full orbit around Earth approximately every 27 days. Each day as the moon rises, it completes a different phase in its orbit. These phases begin with a new moon, and progress into the other 7 phases. These phases, in order, are waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent. Each phase projects a different visibility of the moon, bringing light to the night sky. Surprisingly, the moon itself is dark, but with the projection of the Sun’s rays on what we see at night, gives light to the moon.

Just like our sun rises, the moon rises to our East every evening and sets in the West. Depending on your location, it may rise to the Southeast or Northeast and set in the Southwest or Southeast. The moon rises through the night sky at approximately 13 arc degree difference each day. There are 30 days in a month and it makes a 360° rotation around our Earth every 27 days. This also means that the moon moves about a half of an arc degree each hour through the night sky. Our Earth’s tilt effects the time of day each day that the

Noticeably, the moon rises and sets at different times throughout the night. This is due to the rotation of the Earth around the Sun and the Earth’s tilt to the Sun. Each time that the moon rose, it rose at different arc degrees, approximately a 13° difference each day and moved through the sky at approximately one half of a degree per hour. Each night that was observed, a different phase of the moon was present, but the same phase is viewed throughout the night. The phases, again, are in correlation to its rotation with the Sun, as the Sun is what illuminates the Moon. Their rotation around Earth go hand in hand, as they are basically chasing each other through the sky, just at opposite sides of the