Moon/Sun/Eclipse

[PurpleParis]

Right.....I know I should probably already know the answer to this.....but...I don't.....could someone put it in laymans terms for me to explain to my son.
He looked up to the sky today and the sun and the moon were both out and didn't seem very far from each other. It was midday ish.....and he wants to know how was it night time in Australia...so they could see the moon and it would be dark but we could also see it quite close to the sun and it was day time. This also gave rise to his question....when there is an eclipse and the moon crosses the sun and it all goes dark here...what do they see in Australia????

[boxtops]

Eclipses are only visible from one part of the world at a time. If there is an eclipse in say Africa, we can't see it here. Don't forget that if the sun is out here, it's night time in Australia anyway!

[Huderon]

OK, the first bit first ... at midday here it was 9pm in Sydney, so it would have been dark, but the moon wouldn't have been visible there at that time. People there won't see the moon rise until around 3:30am their time ... which is about an hour after the moon set here today.

For the total eclipse, you can show him with a tennis ball, a torch, a darkened room, a 1p piece and a bit of thread and blutak.

Put the torch on a table and hold the tennis ball up several feet away .. the side which catches the torchlight is in daylight, the other side is in night.

Now attach the thread to the 1p piece with blutak and dangle it between the tennis ball and the torch. But dangle it closer to the ball than to the torch.

The shadow of the coin won't blot out all the light from the torch on the "sun" side of the ball, so anyone outside the shadowed area would still see daylight. Anyone in the shadow cast by the coin wouldn't see the light ... and that's what happens during a total eclipse - the moon's shadow blots out the sunlight over a small part of the earth.

[karenmac60]

That is an excellent answer, Huderon!

[Huderon]

Well the ball and torch thing should work, but as I haven't tried it, I'd suggest a sneaky trial run without children present first, just to be on the safe side :-)

[PurpleParis]

thank you all....i shall give it a try!!

[mibn2cweus]

I'm intrigued by the possible outcome of your astronomy lesson. Sharing knowledge is a noble endeavor often rewarded by what we as teachers learn in the process. Please let us know how it goes.