Susan L. Norwood
Moon Journal
Objectives: To have the students learn through observation and record data.
Materials: Journal, pencil, newspaper, poster board and markers.
Procedure: Have your students keep a journal on the moon for a months time. Have the students observe the moon daily for a months time period, sketch and write about what they observe. Have them write any questions down about what they are observing. Newspapers provide us with exact local times of moonrise and moonset and what phase you can expect to see on a particular date. Have students record the information that they get from the newspapers and their actual observations of the moon by making charts or graphs. Have the students predict each day what time they think the moon will rise and set. Make a graph to show the actual times and compare the differences for each day. Does the time of moonrise have any correlation to the phase it may be in?
The moon in comparison to the earth is large for a satellite. The moon is located at an average of 384,400 kilometers (239,000 miles) away from the earth. At perigee distance from the earth it is 356,410 kilometers (222,756 miles) away and a apogee distance from earth it is about 406,697 kilometers (254,186 miles) away. The earth's moon is fifth in size of all the moons in the solar system. The diameter of the moon is about 1/4 of the earth's diameter. The equatorial diameter of the earth is 12,756 kilometers (8,000 miles). The moon's equatorial diameters 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). The moon's mass is 1/80 that of the earth's. This provides the surface gravity we are used to. Gravity depends on mass and radius. Gravity is a force that causes everything to be pulled towards its center. Through experiments Galileo learned that gravity pulls all objects down at the same speed and affects balance. The moon's surface gravity is only 1/6 the of the earth's. If an astronaut weighed 120 pounds on the earth, he would weigh 20 pounds on the moon.