Ok,I KNOW what a cresent moon looks like.I'm going to have to be specific.....?

Question

What I want to know is what causes a cresent moon.I get a lunar eclipse I understand about the earth passing between the sun and moon blocking the sun. What causes the shadow during a cresent moon?I know I can Google this but this is more fun! lol

Answer 1

As you know, a new moon is when the moon is between the sun and the earth. A full moon is when the earth is between the moon and the sun. Crescent moons happen when the moon and earth are part way between the two.

Take a ball and a lamp. When the ball is between you and the lamp the part of the ball facing you is not lit directly by the lamp. That's like a new moon. If you put yourself between the lamp and the ball you can see that the entire side of the ball facing you is lit by the lamp. That's like a full moon. Move the ball in between these two extremes and you will see that only part of the ball is directly lit by the lamp, like a half moon or a crescent, the closer it is to a new moon.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

What you are seeing is not a shadow, but what's called the terminator.

The phases of the moon are best demonstrated with an orange, a pencil, some black spray paint, and a bright desk lamp or other regular light that you can remove the shade from.

Spray paint the orange black.
Put the pencil completely through the orange.
Hold the bottom of the pencil and put the orange in various places relative to the light.

When you are between the light and the orange the moon is full. When the light is at 90 degrees from the orange, you'll only see half of the orange lit because the light is hitting on the side.

When the orange is between you and the light you won't see any part of the orange lit, because the light side is on the opposite side of the orange from you.

The same is true of the moon and the sun. You are on the Earth, and are always observing the moon at an angle from 0 degrees (Full) to 180 degrees (New).

When the Earth is between the Moon and Sun the Moon will be full; when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth it will be new. It 28.some fraction of Earth days to complete this process.

Thrill your science class and give them a demonstration!

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Okay, I'll give it a try. Imagine you're in a dark room, looking at the doorway. The light is on in the next room and the door is open just a crack. You can see light along the edge of the door but most of the door is as dark as your room. That's something like what a crescent Moon is like.

The "shadow" of the Crescent Moon is not falling ON the Moon. It is FROM the Moon, behind, the back sideof the light side. The Sun is on the far side of the Moon and is shining toward us, but the Moon is closer to it than we are, so we only see the very edge of the lit side. That's why a crescent Moon is so close to the setting (or rising) Sun. If it were close enough, it would be covering the Sun, a solar eclipse.

In contrast, a lunar eclipse, when the EARTH's shadow falls on the Moon, only happens during a FULL Moon, when Earth is closer to the Sun than the Moon is.

That's the best explanation I can offer.

Answer 4

nil_queen

You have a couple nights to see this -

Get somebody you can trust to drive you out of the city to a very dark place away from all lights. If you do that while the moon is a young crescent, you will be able to see the piece of the moon that is not sunlit.

It is a ghostly sort of pale green, and is actually Earthshine reflected back onto the moon (the earth is very bright if seen from the moon, much brighter thqn the moon).

if yoy do this you will no doubt fall in what is happening:

The sun is shining mostly on the reverse side of the moon.

It is no more complex than if you went into a dark room and somebody shone a bright flashlight from behind a white ball. As they move around the ball, you will see more and more of the ball lit up.

It's not as good as the real thing as the light will refelect back off the walls and illuminate the ball slightly spoling the effect.

In space there are no walls, except the above scenario I mentioned where some light gets back to the moon from the Earth.

Earthshine on the moon is worth taking the trip to see.

Answer 5

It's the earth blocking part of the sun's light on the moon. If you take a lamp and remove the lamp shade and place it in the center of a room, let that light bulb be the sun. Take an apple or an orange, let that be the earth. Take a ping pong ball and let that be the moon. You can see that as the moon moves around the earth, there is a shadow cast when the ping pong ball is hidden behind the orange relative to the source of light.

It is the earth's shadow on the moon.

Answer 6

there is no shadow cast on the moon during the cresent.
it's just that the half of the moon that is illuminated by the sun is mostly facing away from you. so you only see a small piece of it. you need to draw the earth, moon and sun.
you are on the earth. the half of the moon that's facing the sun is always lit. now make the moon go around the earth.
the part that YOU SEE changes. those are the phases of the moon.

Answer 7

Most of the sunlight falls on the far side of the moon. Just a little falls on the side facing Earth.

Answer 8

A picture is worth a thousand words, so see the animated graphics at this website that shows all of the lunar phases and what causes them ==>http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/MoonPhases/index.html

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_cycle