how come we don't have full moon all the time?

Question

can anyone explain how the lunar cycle works? why moon is full only on certain days?

Answer 1

The moon has phases because we can only see the side that is lit by the sun. The side that faces us is only partially lit most of the time.

Answer 2

Read what I am about to say carefully and construct a model in your mind: the Moon is orbiting (circling around) Earth and Earth is orbiting the Sun. The side of the moon that is facing the Sun is lit up. From one vantage point on Earth, it would appear that the moon is being covered up slowly and then uncovered. That is because you see a fraction of the side of the moon that is facing the Sun.

When the dark (not lit) side of the moon is facing you and none of the lit side is, you don't see the moon (AKA New Moon). When the opposite occurs, a Full Moon occurs.

To explain something else, the moon rotates at the same rate at which it orbits Earth. That means that a day on the moon and a year on the moon are the same thing. That means that we only ever see one side of the moon (AKA the Light Side of the Moon).

We don't have eclipses twice a month because even though the moon circles Earth, its vertical position in relation to Earth changes. Sometimes the moon is over Alaska, sometimes over China, sometimes over Hawaii, etc. When it is directly over the back of the Earth (the exact point farthest from the Sun on Earth) a lunar eclipse happens - the moon moves into Earth's shadow. The moon becomes blood red. This is because sunlight bends around Earth in its atmosphere and the pollution in our air colors the light red. The moon has been redder and redder during lunar eclipses since the beginning of the Industrial Age due to all the pollution going into the air.

A solar eclipse is when the moon passes over a place on Earth, blocking the sunlight. Solar eclipses happen once a month somewhere on Earth, but only a small area is put into darkness. A place experiences a solar eclipse once every about 250 years.

Did you get all that? I learned that from paying attention in 6th grade Science class last year (I'm 13 years old).
;^ )

Answer 3

The sun illuminates the moon continuously except when the earth eclipses the moon. [A lunar eclipse is probably not what you are asking about.] Most of the time when the moon is not full to us, it is because we are looking at the moon sideways to the direction of light from the sun to the moon. We cannot see the full illumination of the moon when we are looking from that sideways direction. You can only understand this fully by an illuminated model of the orbits of the earth and moon relative to the sun, which is impossible in this text-based forum. You may understand my description better if you consider the model in the web page under Source(s) below.

Answer 4

As you know the moon orbits around the earth. The moon takes roughly a month to get around the earth. As the moon passes behind the earth, the earth cast a shadow on the moon. Only when the moon is completely out of earths shadow do we have a full moon. Of course when the moon is between the earth and the sun do we have a New Moon, at this time the sun is shinning on the side of the moon that is facing away from the earth.

Answer 5

Starting with the full moon - A day or two before the "full moon" you will see the
moon rise just before sunset. At full moon it will rise as the sun sets, and of course
after the sun sets as the time goes on. Each night after, notice how the light on the
moon shrinks from full to last quarter and then to nothing (a 2 week time period).
Also during this time you will notice the moon "traveling" closer to the sun.
Two weeks from full moon (day may vary) look for the sliver of the moon just before sunset.
As the moon moves into NEW moon and you cannot see at all, watch for it to become noticable
as a sliver in the other direction as the sun sets. Follow the light on the moon as
it expands to first quarter and then to full. So you can actually see the moon and the sun
at the same time virtually most of the month.

Answer 6

If there was a full moon all the time , there would be a perfect alignment with the sun the earth and the moon,in that order all the time. But since the moon revolves around the earth , there are phases of the moon.

Answer 7

At any given time, half of the moon's sphere is illuminated by the sun. Because the moon orbits the Earth, how much of the lit side and the unlit side we see at any given time changes.

I created a graphic to illustrate why we can see the moon during the day, but it may also help you understand how we see the different phases. http://public.clunet.edu/~sjfahmie/halfmoonday.jpg

Answer 8

Half of the moon--the side that's facing the sun--is always illuminated. When the earth is between the moon and the sun, we see the illuminated side. When the moon is between the earth and the sun, we see the non-illuminated side. As the moon goes around the earth, we gradually more of one side, then more of the other, and the effect is the waxing and waning phases of the moon.

Answer 9

Because they banned that teenage practice back in the '50's. It caused too many car wrecks.
Damn Lunatics.

Answer 10

cuz its got shadow on it from earth ♥