For this easy to do Kid’s Science Project you will require:

• A cloudless evening with a full moon;

• Paper and a clipboard to use as a drawing surface;

• A pencil;

• A torch;

• Some red transparent plastic wrapping paper to place over the front of your torch.

Here is a fascinating kid’s science project related to astronomy  that is real easy, and yet a lot of fun!

For thousands of years mankind looked at the full moon with fascination. What did our ancestors observe? Invariably they imagined they could see an image that looked like a human face. For that reason the image came to be known as the  “Man in the Moon!

When mankind invented telescopes, and even moreso since man landed on the moon, we now know that there is no such thing as a “Man in the Moon”. The shapes we observe on the moon with our naked eye from Earth are actually shadows caused by the sun’s rays hitting mountain ranges, craters and debris strewn over the moon’s surface as a result of meteor strikes. The mountains, cliffs and deep rifts cause the shadows.

However; when you observe the moon with  the naked eye what do you see? A great way to remember what you observe is to simply sketch on a piece of paper what you see when you look at the full moon. You will need to place a piece of  red transparent plastic wrapping over the front of your torch as you dont want your night vision ruined.

Fix the red plastic with an elastic band. You will require the assistance of the red light from your torch in order to see your paper. White light from your unshielded torch will ruin your night vision. Red light does not impact your vision so much.

Then with your pencil draw the circle of the full moon on your paper. Once you have the outline of the moon on paper draw inside the circle what you see as the shadows and features that are the surface of the moon.

What does your resulting drawing look like? Does it resemble the face of a man?  How high are those mountains that
cause some of the shadows?  How deep are the valleys?  What caused those rays you can see spreading across the Lunar surface?

After you complete your sketch see if your Dad or a friend has some binoculars or an astronomical telescope you can use.  Observe the same full moon through the binoculars. What happended to the face? You could even sketch what you see with the aid of the telescope or binoculars. Compare  your sketch with this photo of the moon’s surface.

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Tags: astronomy, full moon, moon, science experiments, science fair, science project, Science Project Ideas For Kids, science projects

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 6:28 am and is filed under Science Project Ideas - The Man In The Moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.