The+Lunar+Month+and+Phases+of+the+Moon

=The Lunar Month and Phases of the Moon=

The Lunar Month
The Lunar month is about 30 days. It is the average time between the appearances of the new or full moons. The Tides are the rise of the seas, they are effected by the Lunar cycle because they are the caused by the gravitational forces from the rotation of the moon and the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The Tides are effect because of a bulge, when the bulge is around New Zealand, we will have high tide, that's the same as what is directly opposite to NZ, they will have high tide as well. However, if we think of a compass and New Zealand is South, then whatever is on the other side is North. South and North will be on bulges and East and West will have low tide. It is a bit like the number 8 ... the two bulges at the top and bottom are high tide and the bits in the middle that come in are the low tide.

The Moon and it's Phases.
One theory on the Moon's sudden appearance, and its life near Earth began, was the "Giant Impact" theory. According to that, the young Earth had no moon until a random planet larger then Mars hit the Earth. Straight after the impact, the majority of the body and a huge chunk of the Earth were vaporized. The cloud then rose to above 13,700km before starting to solidify. Thus we have the moon!

Phases of the moon:
Blue Moon - where two full moons appear in one month. Full Moon - it is the entire of the visible side of the moon. It appears as an entire circle in the sky. New Moon - it's the phase of the moon where you can't see it. This is because the Sun does not shine on this side of the moon. Crescent Moon - is part way between a new moon and half moon. Half Moon - can only see half of the visible side of the moon. Sometimes called quarter moon because, technically, it is only quarter of the moon. Gibbous Moon - is between a Crescent Moon and Half Moon. The different phases of the moon are determined by the different amounts of illuminated moon that is visible to Earth.

We only see one side of the Moon because it spins on an axis aswell, the full rotation takes one month, the same time in which the moon rotates around the Earth, therefore giving us the same side facing the Earth all the time.

The Moon is positioned close to the Equator therefore, people 'below' the Equator (Southern Hemisphere) and the people on 'top' Northern Hemisphere see the Moon at quite different angles.

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