THE MOON & MOON PHASES

• Moon Calendar shows the phases of the Moon for each day of a selected month. You can set the calendar to any date from 3999 BC to 3999 AD. Clicking any day cell on the calendar will take you to a screen presenting a more detailed view of the moon on that day, along with other information about the Sun and Moon.
• Demonstration of Moon Phases (Java) - moon phases from three points of view: top view; earth view; or both. Great tool for visualizing what causes the cycle of moon phases.
• Moonlight Madness - Learn to identify moon phases (GIF animation by Ed Stephans stephan@henson.cc.wwu.edu)
• Earth and Moon Viewer. Real-time views of the earth showing day and night views. Also views of the earth from the sun and moon.
• Sky & Telescope's Touring the Moon with Binoculars
• HBO's From the Earth to the Moon - cable television mini-series documenting the NASA Apollo lunar missions
• The Moon: It's Just a Phase It's Going Through... (from the Winter 1988-89 issue of The Universe in the Classroom, a free quarterly educational newsletter published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific)
• Cosmonova: Phases of the Moon
• MoonLink - the education and public outreach portion of the Lunar Prospector mission
• Folklore of the "Blue Moon"
• Native American Full Moons

SOLAR & LUNAR ECLIPSES

• The Solar Data Analysis Center Solar eclipse information
• Eclipse Zone
• Bob Yen's Solar Eclipse Site
• Dale Ireland's Eclipses
• 26 February 1998 Solar Eclipse
  • How to Watch the Eclipse Safely
  • Live! Eclipse 98 - If you were unable to connect to this Web site in real-time (due to overloaded servers), you can get an "instant replay" by revisiting the site.
  • SOLAR ECLIPSE: STORIES FROM THE PATH OF TOTALITY
  • Eclipse 98 Webcast
  • NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center - Fred Espenak's Eclipse Home Page
  • SKY Online's Eclipse Page
  • For a unique perspective of the 26 February 1998 solar eclipse (looking down at the Earth instead of up at the Sun), a variety of interesting eclipse images are available from the GOES Project Eclipse Watch Web site, including a small GIF animation (0.2 MBytes) and a medium QuickTime animation (0.6 MBytes) which are ideal for use in the classroom.

OCEAN TIDES

Did you know that ocean tides are caused by the moon? See if you can determine the relationship between the phase of the moon and the time of high (or low) tide and tidal range (difference between high and low tide) by visiting either the WWW Tide and Current Predictor or the NOAA National Ocean Service Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) Make a Tide Prediction. See also the NOAA National Ocean Service Tide and Current Glossary.

SEASONS

• To Every Season There is a Reason, A Primer on Seasons (from the Winter/Spring 1995 issue of The Universe in the Classroom)
• Sunrise Positions in Washington, DC, including time of sunrise and duration of insolation (number of hours of daylight) for the 21st of each month (or view the sunrise positions for the Equinoxes and Solstices only).

MISCELLANEOUS

• Times of sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, twilight, and other astronomical data are available from U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications Department.
• USA TODAY Weather - Sun, moon, stars, time
• USA TODAY Weather - Frequently Asked Questions about seasons, solstices, equinoxes
• USA TODAY Weather - Day, night not equal on equinox
• Paramount Pictures' Deep Impact - the movie about a comet on a fatal collision course with the Earth. To be released 8 May 1998.
• Touchstone Pictures' (ironic name for the film company, considering that stone is about to touch the Earth in a big way!) Armageddon - the movie about an asteroid the size of Texas on a fatal collision course with the Earth (remarkably similar premise, eh?). To be released 5 July 1998.
• NASA Fact Sheet: Asteroids, Comets, and NASA Research
• Simulate the collision of an asteroid or a comet with any planet in Solar System! Visit Solar System Collisions to create your own "deep imact!" (Note: the first time you visit this site, click on the "Help" button for useful background information.)
• Terrestrial Impact Craters - Impact craters are geologic structures formed when a large meteoroid, asteroid or comet smashes into a planet or a satellite. Believe it or not, the Earth has been even more heavily impacted than the Moon! In contrast to the moon (where craters are well-preserved), craters on the Earth are continually erased by erosion and redeposition as well as by volcanic resurfacing and tectonic activity. Thus only about 120 terrestrial impact craters have been recognized. View several of the more prominent craters on Earth.
• The Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Biography of a Star: Our Sun's Birth, Life, and Death, including a clever activity on using parallax to measure distance, e.g., the distance to nearby stars (from issue Number 39, The Universe in the Classroom)

NEW LINKS (added 18 May 1999)

• The Eagle has landed. Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing by visiting the following sites:
  • NASA Apollo 11 30th Anniversary - On July 20, 1969 Neil A. Armstrong took his "Small Step" onto the surface of the moon. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of its greatest success, NASA has created this new site, which features interviews with the crew, the full text of Apollo: Expeditions to the Moon and The First Lunar Landing: As Told By The Astronauts, biographies, several documents, multimedia galleries, and timelines. Highlights include the Apollo 11 image gallery, panorama photos in the Apollo 11 Lunar Service Journal gallery, the astronauts comments in The First Lunar Landing, and the "Top Ten Scientific Discoveries Made During Apollo Exploration of the Moon," located in the document section.
  • Apollo@30 - The National Space Society begins the nation-wide celebration of this summer's Apollo 11 lunar landing 30th anniversary Tuesday, 18 May with the first of its "Apollo@30" countdown moments. Each week between now and early July, NSS will release an "Apollo moment," an historical event that happened on that date 30 years ago as America prepared to send the first human expedition to land upon the Moon. And in early July, the Apollo@30 moments will be issued each day as the nation "counts down" to the historic 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing voyage.
  • Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal: Mission Summary - thoughts from Apollo astronauts, crew information, image and video libraries, flight plans, checklists, mission overview, and more.
  • Apollo 11 Mission Facts
  • Surface Views of the Apollo 11 Landing Site
  • Apollo 11 Lunar Samples and Site Geology
  • The History Place: Apollo 11
  • Apollo 11 Slide Show
  • Apollo 11 Image Gallery
  • Index of Apollo 11 Sounds
  • Index of Apollo 11 Images. Search the previous directory.
  • Apollo 11: 25 Years Later. Designed for the 25th anniversary in 1994, this site holds images with captions and audio files.
• Lunar Phases Web Tool and Quiz (JAVA)
• The Phaser - An Interactive Lunar Odyssey (The Phaser requires Shockwave to run. Download the latest version of Shockwave.)
• The Moon - WeatherNet4 Community and Education Web page
• The Inconstant Moon - The Moon at Perigee and Apogee
• The Inconstant Moon. This site features an interactive calendar that produces an image of the moon phase for each day of the year. It also provides photos and information on the best lunar features to see on the selected day.
• History of the Moon. Also features links to a timeline and lunar mythology pages.
• Lunar Exploration. Learn more about NASA's missions to the moon from the Ranger and Surveyor in the 1960s to the Lunar Prospector mission of 1997.
• The Moon. A comprehensive site with many links that provide more in-depth information.
• Earth and Moon Viewer. View the Earth from the Sun and moon, and see the moon from either the Sun or the Earth. You pick the day, time, longitude, latitude, altitude, and more. The site also features links to Earth- and moon-related screen savers.
• Virtual Reality Moon Phase Pictures. Find the phase of the moon for any date and time from A.D. 1800 to 2199.
• The Moon Illusion - An explanation of the optical illusion of the apparent increased size of the moon when seen near the horizon.