International Observe the Moon Night - Saturday 21st October 2023

Will you be observing the Moon this Saturday? International Observe the Moon Night is a worldwide event for many space and moon lovers across the globe. If you have a telescope...great! If not, that won't stop you because most things you will be reading about in this blog, are visible with the naked eye. We are of course all hoping for clear skies and excellent visibility, but even if Mother Nature does not cooperate, we can still learn lots about the Moon and put our skills to good use when visibility improves.

Now, I should tell you something about myself which I usually keep quiet, I love a map!

I know my love of maps comes from my love of travel and I am passing this interesting quirk onto my children. Whenever we travel, we love to find that place on a map and often check in on our location while we are there, reminding ourselves exactly where we are in the world. We love to analyse maps and identify different locations and test our ability to find and locate interesting destinations, or places we have visited. Well, this love of maps has well and truly tangled itself with my love of astronomy and my children and I now love 'Moon Mapping'.

This International Observe the Moon night, I am challenging you and your children to have a dabble at 'Moon Mapping' - you'll love it! In order to do this, you'll need a little bit of information first, to allow you to impress your kids. Then, use the free resources I've included in this post and your children can become experts too.

Right...let's begin. See the image on the left. That's our Moon, Earth's only natural satellite. This image of our Moon is probably familiar because we always see the same side, known as the 'near side'. The other side, known as the 'far side', we don't get to see. This is because the time it takes for the Moon to spin on its axis is pretty much exactly the same as how long it takes for it to orbit the Earth. Interestingly, the near and far side of the Moon look very different to one another. Before I move on though, please don't call the 'far side' of the Moon, the 'dark side' - we'll blame Pink Floyd for that! This can be a confusing term to use, especially when both sides get the same amount of sunlight.

Okay. Moving on. Looking at the image of our Moon, you can see lighter areas (highlands) and darker areas (lowlands). Maria are the dark areas of the Moon. Maria is the Latin word for 'seas' and these darker areas were mistakenly identified as seas back in the early days of astronomy. In fact, they are not seas at all. They are solidified lava. They were once a crater which filled with lava, the lava then cooled resulting in the flat Maria. These 'seas' all have names and we will be learning to name these when we have a go at Moon Mapping! Right. The brighter areas (highlands). These are hilly, mountainous areas known as Terrae. Other noticeable features to identify are craters. Of course, the Moon has many craters, but two in particular are more famous and obvious to spot than others. One is called Tycho and the other is called Copernicus. These craters are more famous, most likely because they are the new kids on the block. For example, Tycho is believed to have formed 108 million years ago. This may seem like a long time ago, but it is nothing compared to many other craters which formed 3.9 billion years ago. Due to the relatively 'young' age of these new kids, they still have visible rays. These are visible bright streaks that spread out from all directions of the crater. They are thought to be surface material that was discarded and deposited when the craters first formed.

Now you have a little bit of background info, you can pretend like you know exactly what you're talking about when you share the attached resources with your children. Remember, it doesn't matter if the Moon is not visible on Saturday, you can still observe it on the next clear night and many other nights after that.

Moon Mapping.pdf

Download PDF • 894KB

I hope you found this blog post helpful and you enjoy Moon Mapping with your children. Please do share this post far and wide.