Learning Objective: In this activity students use the Sky Tonight software to "watch" the Moon for a whole month and observe all phases of the Moon's cycle. They measure how long it takes for the Moon to orbit the Earth and see how the phase of the Moon is related to its location in the evening sky.

Specific Science Content Standards

• Changes in Earth and sky (K-4)
• Earth in the solar system

• Using mathematics to analyze and predict change Interpret data using methods of exploratory data analysis
• Use representations to model physical phenomena

Space Update: The Sky Tonight

Introducing the activity:
Ask the students if they notice that an evening Moon's location is related to its phase. You only see a crescent moon in the evening Western sky; a full Moon rises in the East in the early evening. You never see a crescent Moon at midnight!

Extending the activity:
This activity introduces the concepts of altitude and azimuth, and has the student plot the position of the Moon through two weeks, from crescent to full. Students can plot the altitude versus the azimuth, and see what kind of graph is obtained. An extension also introduces polar plots, and celestial coordinates, for more advanced students. The students should have done activity 4 (A Month of Moons) first.