Chapter 6: Lunar phases, tides and

eclipses

Image: NASA/Sean Smith

 6.0 Misconceptions about the Moon
Question: Right or Wrong?
Wrong •The Moon is only visible at night.
Wrong •The Moon is larger near to the horizon.
Wrong •The Moon is the biggest on the 15th of the 8th lunar
month (i.e.中秋節).
Right •We always see the same side of the Moon.
Wrong •The Moon does not rotate.
Right •The Moon does not produce light. It is lit by sunlight.
Wrong •There is a dark side of the Moon.
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6.1 The Moon’s orbit

• The Moon’s orbit is almost circular.

• Sidereal period (恆星周期)：The time to orbit
around the Earth once relative to distant stars =
27.3 days
• The orbit inclines by only 5 to the Earth’s  the
Moon always appears near the ecliptic (黃道)

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• The self-rotation period of the Moon is about the
same as the sidereal period
• We always see the same half of the Moon from the Earth 4
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The Moon is sometimes bigger on the sky!
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Super Moon!
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6.2 Phase cycle (月相之循環)

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 上弦月
凸月
漸滿蛾眉月

滿月
New moon 新月

漸暗蛾眉月
殘月

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下弦月
A simple way to determine the time of moonset/moonrise

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sidereal period (恆星周期): 27.3 days
synodic period (朔望周期): 29.5 days 10
6.3 Tides (潮汐)

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• Consider the Earth-Moon system. The Earth
(together with seawater) is also falling
freely under the gravity of the Moon (but it
never hits the Moon).
• The side of the Earth closest to the Moon
feels a stronger force than the centre, and
the centre feels a stronger force than the
opposite side.
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• relative to the centre of the Earth, the differences
in force pull water into bulges on both sides of the
Earth along the Earth-Moon line
• Two high tides 13
• Although the Moon’s gravitational force on us is
small (~ 0.0003 % that of the Earth’s), the tides
cannot be neglected.
• There are similar effects from the Sun
• but only half the magnitude, because the Sun is
much farther away from the Earth

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Some examples of tides
Tolo Harbour
High tide Low tide

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 Bay of Fundy

Image: NOAA

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Tides are affected by geography. The maximum tidal

difference depends on the location.
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 Mont Saint-Michel

~15 m between high and low tides

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浙江錢塘江

(明報新聞圖片) 19
 Spring tides (朔望潮)
The word “spring” does not
refer to the season!

Neap tides (弦潮)

Note: high and low tides refer to the level of water compared
to other time in the same day. Spring and neap tides refer to
the tidal shift compared to other time in the month. 20
• There is friction between water bulges and
sea bed
• frictional force slows down the rotation of Earth
• self-rotation period of the Earth increases by about
0.001 second per century
• Fossils of marine animals confirm that about 400
million years ago the Earth’s day was 22 hours.

• The Earth’s gravitational force on the Moon

also has tidal effects to elongate the Moon
• let’s assume that the Moon used to rotate faster…
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Long time ago,
the Moon rotated
very fast … Elongation

Weak Strong
gravity gravity

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Strong
gravity

Elongation
Weak
gravity 23
 Elongation

Strong Weak
gravity gravity

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• the Moon is squeezed
• there is friction inside the Moon
 Energy loss
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• the Moon’s self-rotation period is slowly
increased until it is almost the same as the
Moon’s orbital period
 tidal coupling (潮汐耦合): the Moon
always shows the same face towards the
Earth

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• The tidal bulges attract the Moon.
• The Moon is accelerated, its distance to the
Earth increases slowly (~ 3 cm/year).

Moon

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6.4 Eclipses (月食與日食)
• On the celestial sphere, the Moon’s orbit and the eclipse
intersect at two points called nodes (交點). For every
month, the Moon crosses each node once.
• When both the Sun and the Moon are close to the nodes,
the Sun, the Earth and Moon align almost on a straight line
• An eclipse occurs

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Viewed from These nodes are just the intersections of the Moon’s
outer space orbit and the plane of the Earth’s orbit. When an eclipse
occurs, the nodal line points at or nearly at the Sun.

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 Lunar eclipse
• The Moon enters the Earth’s shadow
• The Earth’s shadow has two parts:
 umbra (本影): No light from the Sun can reach
this region
 almost total darkness
 penumbra (半影): partial darkness

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Sunlight scattered from Earth’s atmosphere gives the totally
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eclipsed Moon its reddish color.
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Total
lunar
eclipse

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 Total lunar eclipse
• The Moon enters the umbra completely; only
sunlight scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere can
arrive
• The Moon appears red and dim because …

Scattered
away

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• Partial eclipse (偏食): The Moon only enters the
umbra partially
• Penumbra eclipse (半影食): The Moon only
enters the penumbra

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 Solar eclipse (日食)
• The Moon’s shadow falls on the Earth
• The Moon’s umbral shadow is at most about 270 km in
diameter on Earth (Size of Hong Kong ~100km;
diameter of the Earth ~13,000 km)
• People in the umbral shadow can see a total solar eclipse
(日全食) at the same time.
• As the Earth rotates, the shadow sweeps a path of total
eclipse on the Earth
• Total eclipse only lasts for a few minutes at each location
on the Earth
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 Total eclipse

• Observers in the penumbra of the Moon can only see

a partial solar eclipse (日偏食) 41
Shadow of the Moon
(Image: Mir; CNES)

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(taken from the Mir space station, 11 Aug 1999)
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• Annular eclipse (日環食): The Moon is too far from
the Earth to cover the Sun completely 45
Annular eclipse

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Annular solar eclipse in
Hong Kong, back in 2012

Image: HKO
 Saros cycle (沙羅周期)
 Because of the precession of the Moon’s orbit, the Sun, the Earth
and Moon do not return to the same relative positions after 1 year.
 They return to the same relative position every 18 years 11.3 days

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• This period is called the Saros cycle.
• repetition of eclipses after 1 Saros cycle.
• but not visible from the same places on the Earth
• because the number revolutions of the Earth in a
Saros cycle is not an integer

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Paths of totality for solar eclipses from 2004 to 2030. 50
More pictures….

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Diamond ring effect 52
Chromosphere (色球層) 55