The moon - can anyone tell me about it?

[nearlythree]

My dd1 loves the moon, she has been so excited by the lovely crescent moon of the past few nights'. But I know v. little and don't even know if it's waxing or waning. How can I tell, and where can I find out the dates of the significant moon phases? What legends can I share with her, and are there any little rituals we could do?

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/time/moon/phases.html

Thank you!

also if you go to google and customise it, you can add stuff. i've got the current moon phases on it

The legend that a couple of billion years ago, an object the size of Mars hit the Earth so hard that it melted and threw off a blob of light rock that cooled and formed the moon.

By a really amazing coincidence the Moon as seen from the Earth is almost the same size as the Sun, even though they're vastly differnt in real size.

This makes the eclipses we see so magical, elaving only the corona visible when the Moon passes in front of the Sun. Little flashes can be observed, which are actually the Sun shining through the valley amongst the mountains of the moon.

Without the Moon, there might well not be life on Earth since it helped thin out the atmosphere, preventing a runaway greenhouse effect that on a very similar planet like Ven usm eans the surface will melt lead.

If you stand on the Earth, you can look up at the moon. Someone one the Moon can look up at the Earth. Thus if you had very good eyesight you could both look up at each other.

Thank you southeastastra.

Thank you also DC! That's really interesting. Now, can you explain to me why you can sometimes see the moon in the daytime? B/c dd1 keeps asking and even though I've looked it up I just don't get it.

www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2001-02/981683279.As.r.html

Thanks again, MB!

Okay, I think I get it now! Will need to raid the fruit bowl to explain it to dd1.

I'm not sure I can explain well in text.
First, easy bit is that the Moon's surface is surprisingly relfective so there's enough light to be seen.

From the point of view of the Earth, the Moon is going round in circles. You can think of the Sun as staying still. So you get a triangle of Earth mood and Sun. The side of Earth and Moon that face the sun are lit by the sun.
Thus whenever the Moon is visible from the point on the Earth where you are, and it's daytime, and the sky is clear enough, the Moon is being lit by the same light you are.

In some ways it's "odder" that it can be seen at night. This is of course because nearly all the time it is not in the Earth's shadow,

That means the light bounces off and hits your eyes, and sometimes (OK, mostly) it misses.

It's made of cheese and there's a man who lives there.

soupdragon - shouldn't you have mentioned the clangers? (or was that not the moon?)

my mistake, that was "a small hollow planet far far away"!

My DD loves looking at it through my telescope, especially at full moon. The shadows the light , its beautiful. If you just want to look at the moon. or even the planets you shouldn't need an expensive telescope. Now I have a powerful telescope and my DD was over the moon at the views of Saturn last year when it was at opposition. Its at opposition in Feb this year. Check it out.

A rather belated thank you to everyone.