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Lunar and Solar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse
An eclipse happens when one object in outer space is temporarily hidden by another object. When the Earth comes exactly in between the Sun and the Moon, the Earth blocks the sunlight from the Moon and we see a lunar eclipse. This can be a partial or total eclipse. An eclipse can last for over an hour and only happens during a Full Moon.

Solar Eclipse
By a bizarre galactic coincidence, the Moon and the Sun appear to be almost exactly the same size in the sky from Earth. The Sun is about 400 times further away from the Earth than the Moon but the Sun’s diameter is about 400 times bigger than the Moon. This phenomenon allows us to see a solar eclipse from Earth. A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth and the Moon totally or partially covers the Sun. This can only happen at a New Moon and can only be viewed at certain places on Earth where the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow, or umbra, falls

The Moon as a Calendar

Since ancient times people have used the phases of the Moon to judge the passing of time and the word month derives from the word Moon.

However, as a lunar month is 29.5 days and a solar year, the time it takes the Earth to go around the Sun, is 365 days, many countries use an adapted calendar to match up the lunar months with the solar year. An example of this is the Gregorian calendar, which changes the number of days in each month to make 365 days in total. Lunar-solar calendars, such as the Chinese, Hebrew or Hindu calendars, have a variable number of months in a year to bring the lunar and solar cycles together. The only purely lunar calendar in common use is the Islamic calendar, where each year is exactly 12 lunar months. This calendar is not linked to the seasons and each year it moves away from the solar year by 11 to 12 days, coming back into position every 33 Islamic years.

Below is a list of Full Moon dates. Use this list and the Moon phases chart above to set your moon to look like the Moon outside. The time given for each Full Moon is UTC or Coordinated Universal Time. This is only fractions of a second different to Greenwich Mean Time. Adjust the time of each Full Moon to match your time zone.

Studying the Moon

Studying the Moon
Early man was fascinated by the Moon and ancient temples and stone circles were built to line up with the Moon and the Sun at certain times of the year. In 1609 Galileo Galilei was the first person to use the recently invented telescope to study the Moon. The first photograph of the Moon was taken in 1839 by John Draper, shortly after the invention of photography.

Exploration of the Moon
The first spacecraft to pass near the Moon was the unmanned Soviet Luna 1. Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon’s surface and Luna 3 was the first spacecraft to photograph the Far Side of the Moon. This was all in 1959. In 1961 the Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space in his spacecraft Vostok 3KA-3. In 1966 the unmanned Soviet Luna 9 made a successful soft landing on the Moon.

The Apollo Programme

The Apollo Programme
In 1968 the US Apollo 8 made the first manned orbit of the Moon. The Lunar Module on Apollo 10 got to within 15km (50,000 feet) of the Moon’s surface but did not land.

Finally, in July 1969 Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon, with the famous words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He was closely followed by Buzz Aldrin. They remained on the Moon for 21 hours and collected specimens to bring back to Earth for study.

On each manned Apollo mission, there were three astronauts, the Commander, the Lunar Module Pilot and the Command Module Pilot. The Commander was in charge of the mission and was the main pilot of both spacecraft. He would also be the first to step out of the Lunar Module onto the surface of the Moon. The Lunar Module Pilot was the engineer and accompanied the Commander to the Moon’s surface. The Command Module Pilot acted as the navigator and remained in the Command Module whilst his fellow astronauts landed on the Moon’s surface. In the Apollo 11 mission this role was carried out by Michael Collins.

The five missions Apollo 12 and 14 to 17 all successfully landed on the Moon. In 1972 Apollo 17 was the last Apollo mission to the Moon.

Apollo 13
The Apollo 13 mission was supposed to land on the Moon. The spacecraft was successfully launched but when it was 320,000km (200,000 miles) from Earth the number 2 oxygen tank exploded. This seriously damaged the electrical system and meant that the spacecraft could not return to Earth in the normal manner. The crew on the spacecraft and at mission control had to come up with a very clever plan, using the Moon’s gravity to return the craft to Earth. Watched by millions on TV, the crew landed safely home.

Mars

Mars is the most Earth-like planet in the Solar System. It has mountains, volcanoes, deserts, polar ice caps, seasons and weather. There is no vegetation on Mars, although it is possible that there was once water. Mars is often called the Red Planet because it has a lot of rusty iron dust on its surface. The Martian day is 41 minutes longer than an Earth day. Mars has a diameter roughly half that of the Earth and the lowest temperature on its surface is -87ºC (-125ºF). Mars is home to the highest peak in the Solar System, the extinct volcano Mount Olympus. At 27km (16 miles) high it is three times higher than Mount Everest! Mars also has the largest canyon system, Valles Marineris. Mars has two moons called Phobos and Deimos. The first flyby of Mars occurred in 1965 by the Mariner 4 spacecraft. The planet was named after Mars, the Roman god of war because of its blood-like colour. The Ancient Egyptians named the planet Her Desher, which means The Red One.

Beyond the terrestrial planets lies the asteroid belt. Asteroids are small, rocky star-like objects in space. The largest object in the asteroid belt is the dwarf planet Ceres.

Lunar Module Intrepid

On each manned Apollo mission there were three astronauts, the Commander, the Lunar Module (LM) pilot and the Command and Service Module (CSM) pilot. The Commander was in charge of the mission and was the main pilot of both spacecraft. The Commander would be the first person to step out of the LM onto the surface of the Moon.The LM pilot was the engineer and accompanied the Commander to the Moon’s surface .The CSM pilot acted as the navigator and remained on board. In this image Apollo 12’s Lunar Module Intrepid is in the final landing stages and is photographed by the CSM pilot.

Jupiter

Next in the Solar System come the four gas giant outer planets, which, in order of their distance from the Sun, are as follows.

Jupiter
The largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter has a small rocky core, surrounded by a layer of liquid hydrogen and helium. Jupiter is over 1,335 times larger than Earth and has a slightly flattened shape at the poles due to the high speed of its rotation.

Jupiter has over 60 moons. The four largest moons, Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto, were discovered in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei. These four moons are now known as the Galilean satellites. Io is the most volcanic body in our whole Solar System. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, bigger than Mercury, and the only moon to have its own magnetic field. It is thought that there may be twice as much water on Europa as there is on Earth as its icy surface may be covering a huge ocean. The surface of Callisto is covered in ancient craters.

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is in fact a giant storm, twice the size of Earth, which has been observed for over 300 years. More recently three other storms merged to form the Little Red Spot, which is about half the size of the Great Red Spot.

In 1973 Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to venture beyond the asteroid belt to Jupiter.
Since then both Voyager and the Galileo orbiter have flown past Jupiter. In July 2016 the Juno spacecraft, launched in 2011, arrived in orbit around Jupiter and is now sending scientific data back to Earth.

In Roman mythology Jupiter was the king of the gods and the god of the sky and thunder.  An appropriate name for our largest planet!

Saturn

Galileo was the first person to see Saturn through a telescope, in 1610. Saturn does not shine in the night sky as brightly as Jupiter and has a soft, yellowish light. Its makeup is like Jupiter, with an atmosphere of mostly hydrogen and helium and a central rocky core. In the upper atmosphere, there are super-fast winds that reach 500m (1,600 feet) per second. The strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth are only 110m (360 feet) per second.

All four of the gas giants have rings but none are as magnificent as those of Saturn. The nine rings are made up of small rock and ice particles, which were probably generated when the planet was formed or are perhaps the remains of disintegrated moons. Saturn’s ring system extends thousands of kilometres (miles) from the planet but the depth of the main rings is only about 10m (30 feet).

Saturn has at least 62 moons of which only 53 have names. The largest moon, Titan is the only moon in the Solar System to have its own thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, which may be like the atmosphere of early Earth. It is possible that Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea also has a ring system. Many of the other moons are very small with some being less than 10km (6.2 miles) in diameter. All of Saturn’s moons are named after the race of Greek gods called the Titans.
In 1979 Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to reach Saturn. In the 1980s, NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft were the first to discover that Saturn’s rings are mostly made of ice.

Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture.