Sun and Moon Observations

We started off class by talking about what we have seen in the sky over the past couple of days. Some students noticed the sun and the moon had been out at the same time. They drew pictures of the angles their arms would be at if they pointed at the sun and at the moon at the same time. We have a white board in class that looks like a large calendar where students can fill in their visual observations of the moon each day. Students estimated the angle of their arms to be a little less than 160 degrees. They also noticed the fullness of the moon seemed to be slightly less than the previous days.

One student shared that the moon appeared to be a crescent. She said it was smaller than when she had looked at the moon a few days before. This confirmed the students' prediction that the moon would continue to get smaller because it was a “dying” moon in the “d” and “b” theory. Since the students had very few observations, one of the instructors urged the students to get outside over the weekend to make observations about the moon. In addition, she asked them to think about the angle between the sun and the moon as they made and recorded their observations in their sky journals.