12-8

Today we discussed our Moon; activities included:
-Looking at photos of the Moon in different phases, locations in the sky, and involving other planets. We saw in photos: Earthshine (the effect of Earth's reflection lighting the unlit part of a new or nearly new Moon), different apparent colors of the Moon when low on the horizon (due to light passing through a thicker layer of our atmosphere), and the relationship between the Sun's location and the portion of the Moon that's illuminated.
-Notes on our Moon and tides
-Reading about the ocean's tides and how they have locked the Moon into rotating exactly once as it revolves, and how the tides are (slowly) locking the Earth into orbit with the Moon straight over one point on the Earth. (will take millennia)
-Demonstrations of phases of the Moon with flashlight
-Practice on test bonus questions about the moon and telling if it's rising or setting, plus the time of day.
Homework for tonight / Friday:
Read chapter 8, section 1 tonight
Read chapter 8, section 2 AND work p.212#1-19 by Friday