Griffin Scott

11/13/14
Moon Journal Paper
Luna, our moon, is the closest celestial neighbor to Earth, and has played a major part in
our evolution as a species as well as the development of our cultures. Many legends refer to the
moon, and it has invoked the curiosity needed for us to venture out into space. Indeed, the moon
is the start for new astronomers, being easy to observe and draw conclusions from. This paper
will do just that, state my observations and the conclusions that I have made.
For those of us on the ground at Earth, the moon seems to follow the sun, running in
nearly the same path. As with the sun, the moon rises in the east and sets in the west, which
explains the origin many of the cultural stories of the moon chasing the sun. Over time there is a
small change in the moons positioning, tending towards the north east more than true east,
though the change is almost insignificant.
Over the course of this assignment, I found that there were a few things that I didnt
know about the moon. There was the previously mentioned wobble in the moons orbital path,
which makes sense when one realizes that the Earth also has a wobble in its axis. Recording
the azimuth was the portion of the journal that revealed it to me. There is also the time it takes
for the moons phase to cycle, which is something I had not paid much attention to before this
assignment. The shape portion of the moon journal was the section that revealed that interesting
nugget to me.

The moon is an object of immense interest, both scientifically and culturally. The moon
journal assignment was a good one, and I feel that I learned quite a bit from it. Hopefully there
will be more assignments like this in the future.