Sky Blog, in the beginning...

This is the first post on my Sky Blog. As part of my Astronomy Course at Mt. Vernon College I am required to keep a Sky Journal. A journal of course is so passé in the age of computer mobility. Rather than keeping a journal, let's blog about my observation and discoveries and save some trees!

On Friday in class we discussed the moon phases. I know… how boring! But… I think of myself to be very observant and knowledgeable about things around me. I am good with weather prediction, I look at the sky all the time, and I can tell, within reason, what is going on in the atmosphere, what kind of changes we can expect over the next few days and so on. Same with the moon, one look and I know what phase that moon is in, waxing or waning. I use an old Swiss trick to establish the phase of the moon. If the moon looks like a small "a" an "a" as used in hand writing, the moon is waning as in the German word “abnehmend”. If the moon looks like a "z" as used in hand writing the moon is waxing, as in the German word “zunehmend”. Being in touch with the environment comes from being involved with outdoors sports that depend on knowing the weather, such as sailing, mountaineering and aviation. So when the question in class came up about the moon phases, of course I knew why we have moon phases. Earth casts a shadow onto the moon… everybody knows that! WRONG! I have no idea how I came to believe that the Earth casts a shadow onto the moon. Somehow I did, I guess someone must have told me, and it made sense in my mind and I just believed it, never ever questioning it.
After a few minutes in the dark room and a single light bulb representing the Sun and a golf ball representing the moon I got it! It makes sense, this is great! I love to clear up stuff that I thought I knew but was not sure. The moon phases, I got it.

This web page shows a good animation of how the phases work.