Hollywood: Defying Lunar Phases One Movie At A Time

This past Friday night, I had the privilege of attending the first star night of the semester at MTSU. These consist of a lecture and use of the high powered telescopes outside. The lecture this past week was a great eye-opener to how many times Hollywood gets proven facts wrong.

The professor discussed 3 different movies and how we could tell different things about the moon phase based on where the sun was, shadows on the ground, and many other things. In each of these movies, something was not quite right. It is definitely something I plan on looking for in movies from now on!

The moon has many phases and each phase tells a unique story about where the moon is in relation to the sun and earth. There is a new cycle of phases each month. It is important to remember that one half of the moon is always illuminated by the sun, even when it is in the new moon phase and from earth we don't see a moon at all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and all I learned about lunar phases. I look forward to teaching my future students about lunar phases and would love to create a month long lesson where we track the moon and discuss what we see!