Read the article then answer these qushtions:
1)In a full moon and a lunar eclipse, is Earth in between the sun and Moon in both cases? (Yes or No)
2)How is a full moon different from a lunar eclipse?
3)Why are Earth, the Moon, and the sun not always in a straight line (when Earth is in between the sun and the Moon)?
Transcribed Image Text: For instance, ancient astronomers knew that
occasionally, on the night of a full moon, a
lunar eclipse happens. During a lunar eclipse,
the fully illuminated face of the full moon goes
dark for a time. However, they noticed that this
didn't happen every full moon-in fact, over
a year would sometimes pass between their
observations of lunar eclipses. Through careful
record-keeping, the ancient astronomers
realized that eclipses, although rare, happened
in patterns. They kept track of the patterns and
recorded that knowledge in the workings of the
Antikythera mechanism. As a user turned the
date dial of the Antikythera mechanism, the
mechanism counted the days and displayed
exactly when people in Greece could expect to
observe a lunar eclipse.
Today astronomers can explain why lunar
eclipses happen when they do. Lunar eclipses
are caused by Earth blocking sunlight from
reaching the Moon. For Earth to block the
sunlight, it has to be between the sun and the
Moon. Not only that, but the sun, Earth, and
the Moon have to line up exactly, with Earth in
the middle. When they line up in this way. Earth
blocks the sunlight and the Moon goes dark.
Eclipses only happen on the night of a full moon,
because the full moon is the phase when the
sun, Earth, and the Moon line up with Earth in
the middle.
If this is true, why don't lunar eclipses happen
every time the Moon is full? Why did the ancient
astronomers have to wait so long between
observations of eclipses? It's because the
Moon's orbit around Earth is slightly tilted out
of alignment. During most full moons, the sun,
Earth, and the Moon are lined up, but they are
not lined up EXACTLY. For the three bodies to
line up exactly, the Moon has to be exactly in the
right spot on its tilted orbit. That happens very
infrequently. The makers of the Antikythera
mechanism knew how unusual this was, but
The mechanism showed WHEN an eclipse
would happen, but it didn't show WHY an
eclipse would happen. The astronomers who
made the Antikythera mechanism knew that the
Moon seems to shine because it is illuminated
by light from the sun. They also knew that an
eclipse of the Moon happens when Earth blocks
the sunlight and makes a shadow on the Moon.
They did not know exactly why this happened at
some times and not others.
they didn't understand the reason-now you do!
Lunar Eclipse
Earth
Moon
Moon's orbit
Sun
During lunar eclipses, the sun, Earth, and the Moon are arranged in a straight line. Light from the sun is
blocked by Earth and cannot reach the Moon.
Transcribed Image Text: An Ancient
Machine for
Predicting
Eclipses
Imagine diving 150 feet beneath the sea.
You are looking for sponges, which is not
very exciting. but it's your job. Now imagine
coming across the wreck of an ancient ship!
That's what happened to some divers off the
island of Antikythera (an-tee-KITH-er-ah) in
the Mediterranean Sea. The ship had been
on the seafloor for almost 2000 years. Divers
The Antikythera mechanism is a set of metal
gears that predicted patterns in the position of the
sun, the Moon, and the planets. The gears were
found in the remains of an ancient sunken ship in
the Mediterranean Sea.
found coins, statues, musical instruments, and
many other precious items in the shipwreck.
The greatest treasure of all, however, was a
collection of corroded metal gears. Nothing like
would keep going into the future. They built
the Antikythera mechanism to predict events
in the future based on the patterns they
them had ever been found before or has ever
been found since. They seem to fit together in
a complicated way. They are part of a machine
that scientists call the Antikythera mechanism.
had observed.
A user of the Antikythera mechanism could turn
a dial on one side of the mechanism to choose a
It took scientists many years to figure out what
the mysterious machine was for. Eventually.
scientists used x-rays to view the gears and
other parts inside the machine. They were also
able to read ancient Greek writing on some of
the parts. Using this new information, scientists
realized the Antikythera mechanism was built
by ancient astronomers to predict patterns
in the appearance of the sun, the planets that
people were able to observe, and especially
the Moon.
date and time, either in the past or in the future.
The gears would spin into place, predicting the
appearance and position of the Moon and other
bodies at that time. The machine had pointers
and other displays to show its predictions. For
example, ancient astronomers knew there
would be a full moon every 29 and a half days.
There was a ball on the Antikythera mechanism
that traced the phases of the moon. The ball
was white on one side (representing the side
of the moon illuminated by the sun) and black
on the other (representing the dark side of the
moon). As the user turned the date dial of the
machine, the little moon ball would spin to show
what phase the moon would be in on that date.
Ancient Greek astronomers had been observing
the Moon and keeping track of its appearance
for hundreds of years. Looking over all their
observations, they noticed patterns. The
astronomers assumed the same patterns
that had been going on for hundreds of years
The Antikythera mechanism also traced
patterns that took much longer to repeat.
An Ancient Machine for Pred cting Eclipnes 20 The Regents of the Universty of Calfomia Ainghts reserved Per mssiongr antedto pur
y for classroomuse mage Cred E Marsyas via CCY 25