Astronomy

EARTH, MOON, AND

4.1

EARTH AND
Locating Places on Earth
SKY
Earth’s axis of rotation defines the locations of its
North and South Poles and of its equator, halfway
between. Two other directions are also defined by
Earth’s motions: east is the direction toward
which Earth rotates, and west is its opposite. At
almost any point on Earth, the four directions—
north, south, east, and west—are well defined,
despite the fact that our planet is round rather that
flat.
4.1

Locating Places on Earth

Why Greenwich, you might ask? Every country wanted 0° longitude to pass through its
own capital. Greenwich, the site of the old Royal Observatory, was selected because it was
between continental Europe and the United States, and because it was the site for much of
the development of the method to measure longitude at sea. Longitudes are measured either
to the east or to the west of the Greenwich meridian from 0° to 180°.
4.1

Locating Places in the Sky

Positions in the sky are measured in a way that is very similar to

the way we measure positions on the surface of Earth. Instead of
latitude and longitude, however, astronomers use coordinates
called declination and right ascension. To denote positions of
objects in the sky, it is often convenient to make use of the
fictitious celestial sphere.
4.1

The Turning Earth

Why do many stars rise and set each night? Why, in other words, does the night sky seem to turn? We
have seen that the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere could be accounted for either by a daily
rotation of the sky around a stationary Earth or by the rotation of Earth itself. Since the seventeenth
century, it has been generally accepted that it is Earth that turns, but not until the nineteenth century did
the French physicist Jean Foucault provide an unambiguous demonstration of this rotation.

Foucault explained that it was not the

pendulum that was shifting, but rather Earth
that was turning beneath it. You can now
find such pendulums in many science
centers and planetariums around the world.
4.2

THE SEASONS
One of the fundamental facts of life at Earth’s midlatitudes, where most of this book’s
readers live, is that there are significant variations in the heat we receive from the Sun
during the course of the year. We thus divide the year into seasons, each with its
different amount of sunlight.

Many people have believed that the seasons were the result of the changing distance
between Earth and the Sun. This sounds reasonable at first: it should be colder when
Earth is farther from the Sun. But the facts don’t bear out this hypothesis. Although
Earth’s orbit around the Sun is an ellipse, its distance from the Sun varies by only about
3%. That’s not enough to cause significant variations in the Sun’s heating.
4.2

The Seasons and Sunshine

Earth’s annual path around the Sun, with Earth’s
axis tilted by 23.5°. Note that our axis continues to
point the same direction in the sky throughout the
year. As Earth travels around the Sun, in June the
Northern Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun and is
more directly illuminated. In December, the
situation is reversed: the Southern Hemisphere
leans into the Sun, and the Northern Hemisphere
leans away. In September and March, Earth leans
“sideways”—neither into the Sun nor away from it
—so the two hemispheres are equally favored with
sunshine.
4.2

The Seasons and Sunshine

How does the Sun’s favoring one hemisphere translate
into making it warmer for us down on the surface of
Earth? There are two effects we need to consider. When
we lean into the Sun, sunlight hits us at a more direct
angle and is more effective at heating Earth’s surface. You
can get a similar effect by shining a flashlight onto a wall.
If you shine the flashlight straight on, you get an intense
spot of light on the wall. But if you hold the flashlight at
an angle (if the wall “leans out” of the beam), then the
spot of light is more spread out. Like the straight-on light,
the sunlight in June is more direct and intense in the
Northern Hemisphere, and hence more effective at
heating.
4.2

The Seasons and Sunshine

The second effect has to do with the length of time the Sun spends above the horizon.
Even if you’ve never thought about astronomy before, we’re sure you have observed
that the hours of daylight increase in summer and decrease in winter. Let’s see why
this happens
4.2

The Seasons and Sunshine

On or about June 21 (the date we who live in the Northern
Hemisphere call the summer solstice or sometimes the first day
of summer), the Sun shines down most directly upon the
Northern Hemisphere of Earth. It appears about 23° north of the
equator, and thus, on that date, it passes through the zenith of
places on Earth that are at 23° N latitude.

We also see that the Sun’s rays shine down all around the North
Pole at the solstice. As Earth turns on its axis, the North Pole is
continuously illuminated by the Sun; all places within 23° of the
pole have sunshine for 24 hours.

Now look at the South Pole. On June 21, all places within 23°
of the South Pole—that is, south of what we call the Antarctic
Circle—do not see the Sun at all for 24 hours.
4.2

The Seasons and Sunshine

The situation is reversed 6 months later, about
December 21 (the date of the winter solstice, or
the first day of winter in the Northern
Hemisphere). Now it is the Arctic Circle that
has the 24-hour night and the Antarctic Circle
that has the midnight Sun. At latitude 23° S,
called the Tropic of Capricorn, the Sun passes
through the zenith at noon. Days are longer in
the Southern Hemisphere and shorter in the
north.
4.2

The Seasons at Different Latitudes

The seasonal effects are different at different latitudes on Earth. Near
the equator, for instance, all seasons are much the same. Every day of
the year, the Sun is up half the time, so there are approximately 12
hours of sunshine and 12 hours of night. Local residents define the
seasons by the amount of rain (wet season and dry season) rather than
by the amount of sunlight. As we travel north or south, the seasons
become more pronounced, until we reach extreme cases in the Arctic
and Antarctic.
4.2

Clarifications about the Real World

In our discussions so far, we have been describing the rising and
setting of the Sun and stars as they would appear if Earth had little or
no atmosphere. In reality, however, the atmosphere has the curious
effect of allowing us to see a little way “over the horizon.” This effect
is a result of refraction, the bending of light passing through air or
water, something we will discuss in Astronomical Instruments.
Because of this atmospheric refraction (and the fact that the Sun is
not a point of light but a disk), the Sun appears to rise earlier and to
set later than it would if no atmosphere were present.
4.3

KEEPING
TIME
The measurement of time is based on the rotation of Earth. Throughout most of human history,
time has been reckoned by positions of the Sun and stars in the sky. Only recently have
mechanical and electronic clocks taken over this function in regulating our lives.

The Length of the Day

The most fundamental astronomical unit
of time is the day, measured in terms of
the rotation of Earth. There is, however,
more than one way to define the day.
Usually, we think of it as the rotation
period of Earth with respect to the Sun,
called the solar day. A solar day is
slightly longer than a sidereal day
because Earth not only turns but also
moves along its path around the Sun in a
day.
4.3

Apparent Solar Time

We can define apparent solar time as time reckoned by the actual

position of the Sun in the sky (or, during the night, its position below
the horizon). This is the kind of time indicated by sundials, and it
probably represents the earliest measure of time used by ancient
civilizations. Today, we adopt the middle of the night as the starting
point of the day and measure time in hours elapsed since midnight.
4.3

Mean Solar Time and Standard Time

Instead, we can consider the mean solar time, which is based on the average value of the
solar day over the course of the year. A mean solar day contains exactly 24 hours and is
what we use in our everyday timekeeping. Although mean solar time has the advantage of
progressing at a uniform rate, it is still inconvenient for practical use because it is
determined by the position of the Sun. For example, noon occurs when the Sun is highest in
the sky on the meridian (but not necessarily at the zenith). But because we live on a round
Earth, the exact time of noon is different as you change your longitude by moving east or
west.
4.3
 
The International Date Line
The solution to this dilemma is the International
Date Line, set by international agreement to run
approximately along the 180° meridian of longitude.
The date line runs down the middle of the Pacific
Ocean, although it jogs a bit in a few places to avoid
cutting through groups of islands and through Alaska
by convention, at the date line, the date of the calendar
is changed by one day. Crossing the date line from
west to east, thus advancing your time, you
compensate by decreasing the date; crossing from east
to west, you increase the date by one day.
4.4

THE CALENDAR
The Challenge of the Calendar
There are two traditional functions of any calendar. First, it must
keep track of time over the course of long spans, allowing people to
anticipate the cycle of the seasons and to honor special religious or
personal anniversaries. Second, to be useful to a large number of
people, a calendar must use natural time intervals that everyone can
agree on—those defined by the motions of Earth, the Moon, and
sometimes even the planets.
4.4

Early Calendars
It is a complex array of stones, ditches, and holes
arranged in concentric circles. Carbon dating and other
studies show that Stonehenge was built during three
periods ranging from about 2800 to 1500 BCE. Some of
the stones are aligned with the directions of the Sun and
Moon during their risings and settings at critical times
of the year (such as the summer and winter solstices),
and it is generally believed that at least one function of
the monument was connected with the keeping of a
calendar.
4.4

Early Calendars
The Maya in Central America, who thrived more than a
thousand years ago, were also concerned with the keeping of
time. Their calendar was as sophisticated as, and perhaps more
complex than, contemporary calendars in Europe. The Maya
did not attempt to correlate their calendar accurately with the
length of the year or lunar month. Rather, their calendar was a
system for keeping track of the passage of days and for
counting time far into the past or future. Among other purposes,
it was useful for predicting astronomical events, such as the
position of Venus in the sky
4.4

The Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian calendar reform consisted of two steps. First, 10
days had to be dropped out of the calendar to bring the vernal
equinox back to March 21; by proclamation, the day following
October 4, 1582, became October 15. The second feature of the
new Gregorian calendar was a change in the rule for leap year,
making the average length of the year more closely approximate
the tropical year.
4.5

PHASES AND MOTIONS OF THE

MOON
After the Sun, the Moon is the brightest and most obvious object in the sky. Unlike the Sun,
it does not shine under its own power, but merely glows with reflected sunlight.

Lunar Phases
Although we know that the Sun moves 1/12 of its path
around the sky each month, for purposes of explaining
the phases, we can assume that the Sun’s light comes
from roughly the same direction during the course of a
four-week lunar cycle. The Moon, on the other hand,
moves completely around Earth in that time. As we
watch the Moon from our vantage point on Earth, how
much of its face we see illuminated by sunlight depends
on the angle the Sun makes with the Moon.
4.5

The Moon’s Revolution and Rotation

The Moon rotates on its axis in exactly the

same time that it takes to revolve about
Earth. As a consequence, the Moon
always keeps the same face turned toward
Earth

The differences in the Moon’s appearance

from one night to the next are due to
changing illumination by the Sun, not to
its own rotation.
4.6

OCEAN TIDES AND THE MOON

Anyone living near the sea is familiar with the twice-daily rising and falling of
the tides.
The Pull of the Moon on Earth
The gravitational forces exerted by the Moon at several
points. These forces differ slightly from one another
because Earth is not a point, but has a certain size: all parts
are not equally distant from the Moon, nor are they all in
exactly the same direction from the Moon. Moreover, Earth
is not perfectly rigid. As a result, the differences among the
forces of the Moon’s attraction on different parts of Earth
(called differential forces) cause Earth to distort slightly.
4.6

The Formation of Tides

The tide-raising forces, acting over a number

of hours, produce motions of the water that
result in measurable tidal bulges in the
oceans. Water on the side of Earth facing the
Moon flows toward it, with the greatest
depths roughly at the point below the Moon.
On the side of Earth opposite the Moon, water
also flows to produce a tidal bulge
4.6

The Formation of Tides

Note that the tidal bulges in the oceans
do not result from the Moon’s
compressing or expanding the water,
nor from the Moon’s lifting the water
“away from Earth.” Rather, they result
from an actual flow of water over
Earth’s surface toward the two regions
below and opposite the Moon, causing
the water to pile up to greater depths at
those places
4.6

The Formation of Tides

The Sun also produces tides on Earth, although
it is less than half as effective as the Moon at
tide raising. The actual tides we experience are
a combination of the larger effect of the Moon
and the smaller effect of the Sun. When the
Sun and Moon are lined up (at new moon or
full moon), the tides produced reinforce each
other and so are greater than normal
4.6

George Darwin and the Slowing of Earth

Although Earth’s spin is slowing down, the angular

momentum (see Orbits and Gravity) in a system
such as the Earth-Moon system cannot change. Thus,
some other spin motion must speed up to take the
extra angular momentum. The details of what
happens were worked out over a century ago by
George Darwin, the son of naturalist Charles Darwin.
George Darwin had a strong interest in science but
studied law for six years and was admitted to the bar.
George Darwin