What is a good website for understanding the phases of the moon - does earth shadow the moon?

Question

when moon is not full, is earth blocking the sunlight, or is it because of the angle between the sun and the moon. if moon is not full, is the "line" between shadow and illuminated curved or straight?

Answer 1

its curved because the earth is in curved shape and its shawdow must also be curved :)

http://www.k111.k12.il.us/KING/phases_of_the_moon.htm

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question3.html

Answer 2

The orbit of the moon is not in the same plane as the earth's orbit of the sun. So during most full moons, the earth's shadow does not hit the moon. However, it does happen occasionally and that is called a lunar eclipse. The terminator line on the moon is usually curved in appearance from the earth, but is straight at the 'quarter moon' when half of the face toward us is dark. During a lunar eclipse, the earth's shadow is curved.

Answer 3

www.space.com has lots of info on the moon, and the current space shuttle events. It's a really cool site. You can watch the shuttle live, where ever it might be currently. Check it out.

Answer 4

www.space.com is a great website for astronomy stuff.Just type your question there and you get the answer for sure.

Answer 5

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html



http://www.astro.umd.edu/education/astro/moon/phases.html



http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/moon_phases.html



These are some that I found interesting!! Enjoy!!