Eclipse Project
The best way to learn about eclipses of the moon is to go outside and look at one. Plus, it's a good excuse to stay up late at night! Mr. Eclipse is a website that will tell you when the next eclipse of the moon is where you live. (if you live in North America, there's one on Dec 21st 2010; it will start at 11:40 pm.)
Just go outside (put a jacket on!) about ten minutes before the eclipse and look up at the sky. A pair of binoculars is nice but you can see an eclipse of the moon just fine, even in a city, with just your eyes. It's perfectly safe to look at the moon during an eclipse, just like any other time. You don't need special glasses. The eclipse will last a little over an hour.
One cool thing about an eclipse of the moon is that you can see for yourself that the Earth is round like a ball. As the eclipse gets going, you can see that the shadow of the Earth on the moon is curved - that's because the Earth itself is curved.
Eclipse of the Sun
Astronomy - when did people first figure out what an eclipse was?
More about the Earth
Learn by doing - eclipses
To find out more about planets, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
Mercury
Planets
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Science for Kids home page
History for Kids home page
