Moon Phases. How to explain them.

The Moon is like the Earth a big ‘rock’ and produces no light. The only reason we on Earth can see the Moon is because it reflects light from the sun. As the Sun is at a great distance from the Earth and the Moon, our star shines only one side of the two celestial bodies. The other side is dark and we know it on Earth as “night.” Depending on how the Moon is towards our planet and the Sun in the sky, we see a larger or a smaller portion of the lit side of our loyal neighbor. From Earth, we see the same half of the Moon so that the orbit of the Moon is equal to the duration of a revolution of the Earth around its axis. The two most extreme cases of the Moon phases are ‘full moon’ and ‘New Moon’. The period between one full moon and new moon, called a “sydonic month. This period lasts on average approximately 29.5 days and starts over again at new moon. The period during which the Moon makes one revolution around the Earth, astronomers sometimes call a “sidereal month” and takes 27.3 days. Between a full moon and new moon are two periods of ‘crescent’. (Source: Spacepage.be)

All watercolors of The Phases of the Moon are on paper, 50 × 40 cm.

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Click here for lots of information: http://jpschreurs.classy.be/kosmografie/astronomie5.html,

https://www.kalender-365.nl/maan/actuele-maanstand.html  en

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maan

In this film the Moon phases are explained from Full Moon up to and until New Moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAwBHQckbPI

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