Observing the Moon

The Moon is probably the only celestial object, apart from the Sun, that we can all recognise without being prompted. It is large and bright enough to catch our eye unexpectedly, and regularly goes though a remarkable sequence of phases that have no parallel in nature.

There was a time when the Moon played an important part in people's lives. Moonlight made activity possible outdoors after sunset. The first calendars were based on a lunation, the time taken for a complete cycle of lunar phases, from one new Moon to the next. In fact, the word ‘Moon’ is derived from an archaic term for measurement.