When we look at the moon, the light that we see is actually the light of the sun reflected by the moon. Half of the moon is always in sunlight and half is always in darkness. Even though half of the moon stays lit, or illuminated, by the sun, the moon appears to have different shapes on different nights. These shapes are called phases. Different phases occur because we see different amounts of the lighted half of the moon on different days. The more of the illuminated side of the moon we see, the larger the moon appears to be. The less of the illuminated side of the moon we see, the smaller the moon appears. For example, during the full moon phase, all of the lighted part of the moon is seen from Earth and the moon appears fully lit. During the new moon phase, when the whole moon appears very dark, only the non-lit part of the moon is visible to Earth. The names of all the phases of the moon are shown below.

Question

When we look at the moon, the light that we see is actually the light of the sun reflected by the moon.  Half of the moon is always in sunlight and half is always in darkness. Even though half of the moon  stays lit, or illuminated, by the sun, the moon appears to have different shapes on different nights.  These shapes are called phases. Different phases occur because we see different amounts of the lighted  half of the moon on different days. The more of the illuminated side of the moon we see, the larger  the moon appears to be. The less of the illuminated side of the moon we see, the smaller the moon  appears. For example, during the full moon phase, all of the lighted part of the moon is seen from  Earth and the moon appears fully lit. During the new moon phase, when the whole moon appears  very dark, only the non-lit part of the moon is visible to Earth. The names of all the phases of the  moon are shown below.

These moon phases occur in a highly predictable pattern. New moon is always followed by waxing  crescent, then first quarter, then waxing gibbous, then full moon, then waning gibbous, then third (or  last) quarter, then waning crescent, then back to new moon. Then the cycle repeats. This cycle of  phases of the moon are caused by the Moon’s revolution around the Earth. One complete cycle of  moon phases takes 29.5 days, or one month (think “moon-th”).

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1. Which two dates from the chart above would have nights with a full moon?

2. Halloween night 2020 had a full moon. Does this mean that the entire moon was lit by the sun on that night? Explain your ansewr)

GPT-4o mini · Answer

1. The two dates from the chart above that would have nights with a full moon are the dates listed as "full moon" in the lunar cycle. If no specific dates are provided in the chart above, please refer to a lunar calendar for the years of interest to find the full moon dates. 2. Yes, Halloween night 2020 had a full moon, which means that the entire moon was lit by the sun on that night. During the full moon phase, the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, allowing us to see all of the illuminated side of the moon. As a result, the moon appears fully lit to observers on Earth.