Do the Moon's phases result from the Earth blocking the light
of the Sun?
What proportion of the Moon do we see?
The same side of the Moon seems always to face the Earth:
O Moon! When I look at thy beautiful face,
Careening along through the boundaries of space
The thought has quite frequently come to my mind
If ever I'll gaze on thy glorious behind. (Ronald
Ross)
If you lived in ancient times, how might you have explained
this?
Can you provide an explanation, or does it seem a coincidence
to you now, that the period for the revolution of the Moon about
the Earth should equal the time for one rotation around its
axis?
In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge wrote of...
The horned [crescent] moon with one bright star
Within the nether tip.
What is wrong with this poetic description?
How much of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun?
Is the Illuminated side of the Moon necessarily the same as
the Near side?
