2009/04/28

Reflection Entry 4, Summary

This past week had the biggest impact on my learning experience. I was sharing my ideas with a few people and bringing in concepts of different observations helped me to realize the points I missed. Everything suddenly started to fit in together like puzzle pieces and now I complete understand the behaviour of the moon on the night sky. It rises and sets on the more-less same position as the sun (east and west), but contrary to the sun, the moon does not have a specific part of the day when it rises or sets. I knew a week ago that the moon rises at a different time but I never realized how significant the changes were. Not only the moon changes its phases over the period of 28 days, it also completely changes rising and setting times throughout the day. The only time we can be sure about is when a full moon occurs – then the sun, the earth and the moon are all lined up. We see the sun setting on the west and the moon rising exactly on the opposite side on the east.

Also, I managed to solve the mystery about the photos. On the end, the moon does not rotate CW or CCW; it was just the relative perspective views the pictures were taken from. One was from far north (North Cape, Europe, the northernmost point of Europe) and the other one from Vermont. Obviously, a person’s top that is standing at the North Pole appears to be another person’s left if she stands at the equator.

The new thoughts I learned this week was the topic of tides. I finally understand the tidal moves (the Earth’s gravitational force) and know the time differences. Both high and low tides happen twice a day, with a circa 50min delay which is due to the difference in moon rising / setting (also 50min). Such difference is created from the relative revolution around the Earth – the moon does not copy the equator exactly but goes approximately in the 15° angle.

As a learner, I enjoyed this project a lot. It showed me that patience is the wisest method of learning because drawing conclusions too quickly requires certain amount of assumptions to be made. And they can always include misconceptions, based on our previous knowledge and pieces of information we might have heard somewhere before. I realized that I was living 19 years with a partial ignorance of the moon and I am happy I understand its behaviour into details.

Battell Beach view at night, Middlebury, VT, USA

2009/04/20

Reflection Entry #3

Before I start describing my past week and the moon observation, I would like to point out that I made a mistake in drawing conclusions too fast. If you remember, I thought I figured out the moon rising and setting behaviour the last week. We had discussions in small groups in our Tuesday class though. And I realized that I did not anticipate different times when the moon rises. Therefore, I think, when the moon rises the next day later than it did a day before, it appears on the sky more towards the east as it has not reached the point from a day before. Now I believe that the moon has more-less exact points of rising and setting, similarly as the sun does. When I think about it, the most rational explanation is that the moon rises on the east and sets on the west because of the way the Earth rotates – from east to west. But before I assure myself for good again, I have to make a few more investigations.

Unfortunately, this third week of observations was purely unsuccessful to me. Either it was cloudy, or it was raining or the sky was clear and I could not see the moon. According to the lunar calendar, the moon has transferred through waning gibbous to last quarter and is less and less visible from a day to a day. The new moon should be on Thursday of this week.

On the other hand, the lack of full moon on the night sky created better conditions for star watching. When the new moon lit as the main night sky object is not there, everything seems a little bit darker. Thus, it is easier to see the full range of stars even from billions of light years away from us. The sky with stars only looks more mysterious to me and I would rather get lost in woods when the full moon was up, shining on my way.

Lastly, I would like to point out my progress on the moon pattern. I looked through different photos of full (or almost full) moons I have taken at various times, and it seems that the side of the moon we see is almost the same all the time. But it rotates! Two examples I had illustrated 90°CCW (or 270°CW) rotation over a period of circa 8 months. I have no idea why though. Before I reach conclusion, however, I feel that more observations are necessary. I do not want to repeat my previous mistake again. Learning with patience always leads to desirable results.

Kamoyvaer near Nordkapp, Norway: 2008/08/18

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Middlebury, VT, USA: 2009/04/10