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Know Your Lunar Eclipses

Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.



Page 2 of 3    Previous    Next    [Index]

Two Fascinating Eclipse Facts

Astronomers tell us that there should be a lunar eclipse of some sort at least twice a year. If this fails to happen, something has gone very wrong with your world and you should return it for servicing.

Sometimes it is possible to see both the Sun and a partially eclipsed Moon, in the same sky, at the same time, with your eyes. Well, not quite, because as you can imagine, basic geometry dictates that both the Sun and the Moon must be close to the horizon for this to happen, and while you are looking at one, the other one will be behind you. If you really wanted to see them both at the same time, you would need a mirror. But it could be done, that's all we are trying to say.


Brainwashing

There is no "Man in the Moon", nor is there any pattern on the surface of the Moon which even closely resembles a man. But because, ever since we were little, we have been told that there is, we keep talking about it. This is a clear example of brainwashing, and should serve as a sobering reminder to us all that we really need to think for ourselves and make our own observations.

The Man in the Moon. Rubbish.
This is a lie.

You stand more chance of being brainwashed by this "Man in the Moon" nonsense if you are born in the Western Hemisphere. But things wouldn't be much better if you were born somewhere like Japan. If you end up getting born in Japan, you will likely be brainwashed into believing that there is a rabbit on the Moon, pounding up rice in a bowl, in order to make rice cake. We know this, because it says so in the instruction manual to the recent computer game "Okami". But we are not falling for that one, either. We looked at the Moon with our own eyes, and there is no rabbit.


Space Poetry

The Moon has always been a firm favourite among soppy poemsmiths throughout the centuries. We don't like soppy poems here, but we did manage to find a non-soppy one in a "science" book written by Patrick Moore. It goes like this:
Of all the comets in the sky
There's none like Comet Halley.
We see it with the naked eye,
And periodically.
Okay, it's not about the Moon. But that's not surprising, because the title of the book was "The Comets: Visitors from Space". You can't have everything. Stop complaining.


Staggering Solar System Coincidences

There are a lot of staggering coincidences in the universe. Here are two lunar-related ones:
  • The Moon rotates on its own axis. So all of its surface is exposed to the Sun at some point (don't be fooled by Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"). However, from Earth, we only ever see one side of the Moon. That's because, staggeringly, the Moon orbits the Earth at exactly the same frequency that it spins around its own axis. Simply amazing. Scientists reckon it has something to do with gravity, and the Earth's moon is not the only moon to behave like this. But we still reckon it's a coincidence.
  • The Sun's diameter is 400 times greater than that of the Moon. However, staggeringly, the Sun is 400 times further away from the Earth than the Moon. So from Earth, they both look the same size. On average, anyway. None of the orbits in the Solar System are perfectly circular, so things get nearer to and further from each other all the time.



Moon 1 - Pluto 0

The Earth's moon is bigger than the "planet" Pluto. Which means Pluto is rubbish. Unsurprisingly, astronomers keep arguing about whether Pluto should be called a planet or not. But there's no need to argue: Pluto's orbit is a bit strange compared to the other planets, and it sometimes crosses over the orbit of Neptune. This means two things. First of all, for about 20 years at a time, Pluto is the 8th planet from the Sun, not the 9th. More importantly, though, it also means that Pluto it is bound to crash into Neptune at some point and get totally trashed. It's bound to happen any day now, surely. Then Astronomers will have to think of something else to argue about.

Pluto
Pluto. Clearly not a proper planet.




Bye Bye Moon

There is strong gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon. Any fool knows this, because we can see the Earth's water getting pulled towards the Moon at high tide. But there's more to it than that. The Moon is getting the better half of the deal in the gravitational interaction. It is technically taking energy away from the Earth. The result? The Earth is spinning slower and slower all the time. Bad Moon. Naughty Moon. On a positive note, though, the Energy that the Moon steals is used to make the Moon orbit further and further away from the Earth. Patrick Moore has presumably been monitoring things with a ruler and a stopwatch or something, because we know that the Moon is departing at a rate of about 3.8 centimetres every year. Anyway, good riddance we say. Leave our water alone.


Pointless Calculations

NASA think they are all very clever and everything, what with them getting people onto the Moon. But anyone could do it, really. If you were on a Boeing 747, and the pilot got bored and decided to fly to the Moon, it would take only a little over two weeks to get there. And that's not all. If you can find a decommissioned Concorde lying around somewhere, you could probably fill it up with petrol, floor the accelerator and make it to the Moon in about 5 days. Now admittedly, NASA can get people to the Moon in about 3 days. But our calculations show that NASA are not really that much faster than the average airline. We confronted NASA with our findings, and asked them why they think they are so clever. They sent a snotty email back talking about jet engines and vacuums and things. We didn't understand it, so we deleted it.


All of this trivia in no way helps solve the problem of a non-disappearing Moon during a "total" eclipse. So it's finally time to tackle that problem...







Page 2 of 3    Previous    Next    [Top of Page]

Page 1: Introduction; Stupidity Avoidance

Page 2: Random Eclipse-Related Facts

Page 3: Eclipse Geometry; How to Make a Proper Eclipse




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