The Moon

ring Ring around the Moon 2/27/02
Ring around the Moon 2/27/02
 DSC 1645 Moon and Jupiter
Moon and Jupiter
 MoonJup Moon and JupiterNEW
Moon and Jupiter
 moon
moonvens Moon and Venus
Moon and Venus
 newmoon 24-hour-old new Moon
24-hour-old new Moon
 lunecl1 Total Lunar eclipse and Saturn
Total Lunar eclipse and Saturn
 DSCF1650 Total lunar eclipse 10/27/04
Total lunar eclipse 10/27/04
DSCF2997 Moon and Venus 5/19/07
Moon and Venus 5/19/07
 DSC 1248 Moonrise Milpitas
Moonrise Milpitas
 SuperMoonEclipse 4113 Supermoon eclipse 9/28/15
Supermoon eclipse 9/28/15
 SuperMoonEclipseHDR Supermoon eclipse HDR 9/28/15
Supermoon eclipse HDR 9/28/15
Fireworks6 Fireworks and the Moon
Fireworks and the Moon
 earthmoon How We Get a Full Moon A non-scientist friend recently called me up with a question: how can we ever have a full Moon? If the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, wouldn't at least PART of the Earth's shadow fall on the Moon? Well, I KNEW the answer to that question was that the Moon's orbit around the Earth is tilted by about 5.8 degrees. However, the more I thought about it, the less satisfying that answer seemed. I mean, 5.8 degrees really isn't THAT much, is it? So, it finally hit me that I should try and draw a diagram to scale of the Earth-Moon system. When I did, the result startled even me. It REALLY drove home the importance of scientific visualization. What I saw in an instant was that, at the distances involved, 5.8 degrees of tilt is WAY more than enough to take the Moon far, far out of the Earth's shadow for the majority of its orbit.
How We Get a Full Moon

A non-scientist friend recently called me up with a question: how can we ever have a full Moon? If the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, wouldn't at least PART of the Earth's shadow fall on the Moon?

Well, I KNEW the answer to that question was that the Moon's orbit around the Earth is tilted by about 5.8 degrees. However, the more I thought about it, the less satisfying that answer seemed. I mean, 5.8 degrees really isn't THAT much, is it?

So, it finally hit me that I should try and draw a diagram to scale of the Earth-Moon system. When I did, the result startled even me. It REALLY drove home the importance of scientific visualization. What I saw in an instant was that, at the distances involved, 5.8 degrees of tilt is WAY more than enough to take the Moon far, far out of the Earth's shadow for the majority of its orbit.