"Measuring the Moon" problems

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Pooshcatmo
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 5:50 pm
Occupation: Parent

"Measuring the Moon" problems

Post by Pooshcatmo »

My 1st grade daughter is doing this project and it's difficult enough to get a clear night close to the moon phase date. The project tells you to go out around the same time each night. We have a clear night tonight, however, the moon isn't rising until 2:30am. The experiment doesn't take this into account. You can't really expect and school aged child to be getting up at 3 am for a science project. And over the course of a full moon cycle, there is no single time when the moon is always risen during night time hours. We have already put weeks of work into this project and had no idea that moon rising time would be an issue and the project instructions make no mention of it either.
tegchem
Former Expert
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2016 4:09 pm
Occupation: Other Adult

Re: "Measuring the Moon" problems

Post by tegchem »

Hi Pooshcatmo,

This is certainly a dilemma! I'm curious if there's a way to work around the 2:30am issue; how have you been conducting observations before this? If you have already put weeks of work into the project, I'm sure there's a way we can adjust or salvage the project to better fit your needs, and you may already have enough data to complete the project.

Perhaps you could try setting up a videocamera or some other way of recording the moon late at night. One issue with this method is that you'd need to start the experiment over in order to properly compare data.

Hope to hear back from you!
Megan
eileenrichards
Former Expert
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:31 am
Occupation: Parent

Re: "Measuring the Moon" problems

Post by eileenrichards »

I wonder how you're measuring the moon? Maybe there's another way of getting that data without needing to be "eyes on" so to speak? For example, https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/light.html -ER
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