Lunar eclipse

On one hand, there is some evidence for a general brightening of the lunar surface both under sunlight and during lunar eclipses as well as substantial observational evidence for transient and localized... 

Because the gravitational force is known in quantitative detail, the appearance of comets and the coming of solar and lunar eclipses can be predicted with unerring precision. Physicists strive to understand each of the four basic forces in complete quantitative detail. 

Observations of the Moon from Earth, reveal different phases of the Moon with respect to the percentage of lunar surface reflecting sunlight back to Earth. As the Moon orbits Earth, it comes between Earth and the Sun once a month at the time of a new Moon, and orbits Earth in very nearly the same plane that the Earth orbits the Sun. If the Moon s orbital plane had zero tilt off the Earth s orbital plane, a total lunar eclipse would be visible every month. 

Full A time of illumination when ongoing situations come to a head, emotions are heightened, and major events take place. Full Moons are especially dramatic and revealing when they re also lunar eclipses. 

Finally, I want to mention one other momentous lunar influence the eclipse. If you ve ever watched an eclipse, you know how eerie it can be. A solar eclipse, which takes place during a New Moon, literally turns day to night. A lunar eclipse, which happens during the Full Moon, seems to erase the Moon from the sky. No wonder ancient people told so many myths about them. 

Suppose an astronomer wishes to predict when the next lunar eclipse will occur. As we know, the data accumulated after centuries of speculation and observation led, in the last quarter of the 17th century, to a theory that perfectly explains non-relativistic astronomical phenomena Newtonian mechanics. From Newton s laws, it is possible to deduce the behavior of heavenly bodies as a logical consequence of their gravitational interactions. This is an example of a mechanistic model with it we can predict trajectories of planets and stars because we know what causes their movements, that is, we know the mechanism governing their behavior. An astronomer only has to apply Newtonian mechanics to his data and draw the necessary conclusions. Moreover, he need not restrict his calculations to our own solar system Newton s laws apply universally. In other words, Newtonian mechanics is also a global model. 

We often see recurring patterns in nature—day and night, the seasons, solar and lunar eclipses, the rhythm of a heartbeat. Elements exhibit recurring patterns in properties because their atoms do. 

SULPICIUS GALUS, GAIUS (second century). Consul in 166 and a skilled astronomer who explained a lunar eclipse to the troops in Macedonia in 168. 

The distance to the moon. Hipparchus in 130 BCE or thereabouts used the curve of the terrestrial shadow across the moon during eclipses to estimate this in units of earth radii and got roughly the right answer. A geometrical method for determining the ratio of sun distance to moon distance failed, because the lunar orbit is not a circle. 

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