Observing the moon - Assignment Example

When you make your fist and hold it out at arm’s length, it represents approximately 10 degrees. This can be checked out by going fist over fist from the horizon to the point directly over your head which is 90 degrees from the horizon to the point directly overhead thus should span approximately 9’fists’. From each observation of the moon, find the moon in the sky and find the point along the horizon directly below the moon. Measure how many fists the moon is above the horizon. This will be the altitude measurement of the moons line touches the horizon.

Though measuring azimuth is a bit trickier, this is the number of degrees along the horizon starting from true north and always passing through the east. One has to find out where north is and then drop imagined line down from the moon to the horizon and count how many fists it takes to go from north to where the imaginary line touches the horizon. Since each fist equals 10 degrees, increase the number of fists used by 10 to get the azimuth in degrees. It is advisable that you should make your observations from the same location in order not to determine true north every time.

At first the new moon is seen. The moon, sun and earth are in approximate alignment. The new moon is on the opposite side of the earth such that the entire sunlit part of the moon is facing us. The shadowed portion is entirely hidden from view. At first and third quarter moons happens when the moon is at a 90 degree angle with respect to the earth and sun. In this case, we only see half of the moon illuminated and half in shadow. In the waxing crescent, the sunlit portion is increasing but less than half.

On the other hand, waxing gibbous refers to when the sunlit portion increases but is now more than half. At full moon, there is maximum illumination and after this, the light continually decreases hence waning gibbous phase occurs next. The third quarter is then followed by the waning crescent which wanes until