What's the difference between....?

Question

What is the difference between a 'lunar eclipse' and a 'new moon'? As far a i understand they are both the same i.e. the earth comes in between the sun and the moon, thereby rendering the moon invisible to earth. Please explain it in detail...i'm really confused.

Answer 1

A new moon is when we see the side of the moon that is not lighted by the sun. The earth isn't actually blocking the sun when there's a new moon.

Answer 2

oops, sorry, one has nothing to do with the other ;-)

let's start with the moon cycle. The moon is a ball in space, with the light of the sun falling on it. So one half of the ball is bright, the other is dark. At the beginning of the moon cycle we see the ball with just a thin bit of the bright side showing. Then we progressively see more and more of the bright side and we have a crescent (left-facing), until we see it all and we have a "full moon". Then we start seeing less of it again and we have a crescent (right-facing). And then we are left with the dark side of the moon so we don't see it at all.

And then the cycle starts again and we call this a "new moon". Which is a bit wrong because the moon was, of course, always there all the time.

why does this happen? Because the moon revolves around the Earth (in 28 days). Just take a baseball with a light shining towards it, in a dark room, and make the baseball turn around you, and it will all become clear.


Now what about a LUNAR ECLIPSE? That's very different. It happens when the Earth comes in between the sun and the moon, i.e. blocks the sunlight from the moon for a while.


Hope this helps clarify things a bit ;-)

Answer 3

An eclipse refers to the phenomenon of one body passing into the shadow cast by another body. In astronomy, the best-known type of eclipse occurs whenever the Sun, Earth and Moon line up exactly. If this occurrence is at the time of a full moon where the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow, it is called a lunar eclipse. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depends upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital node. If the lining up of the Sun, Moon and Earth occurs at New Moon, the event is usually referred to as a solar eclipse (although the term is a misnomer and can more accurately be referred to as an occultation of the Sun by the Moon).

Well, there are some things to consider:

When the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, there is no illumination of the Moon with respect to Earth; it is new Moon; When the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth's shadow involves the Moon, there is a Lunar eclipse. But similar configuration occurs in Full Moon, so why there isn't one Lunar eclipse every month?

The response remains in the fact that the Earth, Sun and Moon don't move in the same plane, so, sometimes the configuration is such that even when the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun, we have a Full Moon, and not an eclipse: the Moon is in other plane, so the Earth's shadow doesn't involves it.

Answer 4

A new Moon is between the Earth and Sun. During a lunar eclipse the Earth is between the Sun and Moon. Like this:

New Moon:
Sun---Moon---Earth

Eclipse:
Sun---Earth---Moon.

For the new Moon, we are simply looking at the unlit side of the Moon. For the eclipse, the Earth is casting a shadow on the lit side. If the Earth is not in juuuust the right place, we see a full Moon instead. Usually the Earth passes a little above or below the right place and it's shadow misses the Moon. That is because the Moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees to the Earth's orbit, so the Earth usually does not pass DIRECTLY between the Sun and Moon at the time of full Moon.

Like this:

...........Earth
Sun----------------Moon

Or this:

Sun----------------Moon
...........Earth

Answer 5

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth casts a shadow on the moon by blocking the sun. In a new moon the earth is not blocking the sun. It would actually be a solar eclipse (moon blocking sun) If it happens during the daytime this is when we actually see the eclipse