Part 1 #rockinreview
How the moon affects ocean tides and currents:
Waxing: when the moon's light is increasing until it is full
Waning: getting smaller and smaller until completely dark
Gibbous: having the observable illuminated part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle
Crescent: part way between a half moon and a new moon, or between a new moon and a half moon
When a moon is waxing, it is increasing in lighted area, making it appear larger, a waning moon is the exact opposite, when a moon is decreasing in lighted area until completely dark.
Lunar cycle: a cycle of 235 synodic months, very nearly equal to 19 years, afterwhich the new moon occurs on the same day of the year as at thebeginning of the cycle with perhaps a shift of one day, depending on the number of leap years in the cycle
Nicolai Copernicus was an ancient astronomer who had the theory that the Sun was the center of the universe instead of Earth. The Earth spins both around an axis, around the Sun, and on its own in an up and down type of motion that moves the northern and southern hemisphere farther and closer to the sun causing Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall. Even though the Sun is closer to Earth in Winter it is still cold because of the way Earth is tilted away from the Sun which allows it to only warm our part of the Earth for a little while. We don't have a Lunar eclipse every month because of how the Earth is tilted at each eclipse so only specific areas get the eclipse.
We have day and night because of how the Earth turns and faces towards and away from the Sun, causing there to always be a dark side of the Earth.
equinox: the time or date at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are of equal length
solstice: either of the two times in the year, the summer solstice and the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky at noon, marked by the longest and shortest days