Reach for the Stars!
Moon Facts and What to watch for
By Natalia Diaz
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From one of the most popular children’s bedtime books of all time, “Goodnight Moon,” to the sung-in-every-pre-school room, “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We’re going to the moon,” the fascination of this nighttime marker puts the moon on every night sky exploration list. To start, tracking the moon phases can be lots of fun—especially for the younger ones. For the older kids, tracking the moon phases can help them make a scale model for science class or compare where the moon is in relation to Earth and the other planets.
Here are a few moon facts:
- The moon is about one-quarter the size of our planet.
- It is the only moon on Earth and it’s one of the biggest in the whole solar system. Due to its small size, objects weigh less on the moon than they do on Earth.
- Neil Armstrong was the first human being to walk on the moon. In 1969, Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin stepped off the aircraft and said, “The eagle has landed.”
- There are over 500,000 craters on the moon that can be seen from the planet Earth.
- Flying once around the moon is the equivalent of a round trip from New York to London.
- The moon changes its shape as it travels around the planet and takes 29 days to go through all its phases.
What to watch for: Moon Phases
Kids love learning about the phases of the moon because unlike stars, they can see and track the changes as they unfold. In the period of 29 days, they can chart all four phases of the moon just by looking up at the sky.
The best time to start tracking the phases of the moon is at the end of its 29-day cycle when the moon gets dark and invisible. This is what’s called the New Moon phase. Within a week, the moon moves halfway around the Earth’s orbit and you can see half of the moon from Earth. This interval is called the First Quarter phase. Around the 14-day mark, the moon moves closest to Earth and turns into a full moon. The moon continues to move around the Earth for the rest of the month, reaching the Last Quarter phase in its last week. In this phase, the other half of the moon is visible for a few days and soon after, the process begins again.
An easy way to track the lunar cycle is with a monthly calendar. Pick a starting date (preferably when the moon is dark and almost invisible) and jot down the size and shape of the moon each night for 29 days. Each week will look completely different as the moon goes through its four phases.
Now that you know about the workings of stars and the moon, you’re ready to embark on your star gazing activity and, once you make looking at the stars a regular family event, you’ll never feel lost in the night sky again.
