62 Stories of the Moon

Did you ever hear this old saying? “The moon is made of green cheese.” People used to say this until about 1969. Then the first explorers landed on the moon. We learned different things about the moon’s surface then. For instance, we found it was hard and rough. It has many craters.

The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. Its diameter is roughly one-fourth that of Earth. Its gravity is much less. Astronauts on the moon’s surface bounced rather than walked.

The moon circles Earth on the average of once every 29 days. Its orbit around Earth is not circular; it is more of an oval. So the moon’s distance from Earth can vary quite a bit. Sometimes it is about 250,000 miles from Earth. Other times it is only 220,000 miles away.

The back side of the moon always faces away from Earth. But this does not mean it is always dark. The moon gets its light from the sun, just like everything else in our solar system.

Eclipses of the moon are fairly common. These happen when Earth comes between the sun and the moon. Then some or all of the moon’s light is blocked.

Usually we see one full moon a month. Certain types of full moons have specific names. The Harvest Moon, for instance, is the moon nearest the fall equinox (about September 22). For several days after it, the moon rises soon after sunset. This provides extra hours of light to farmers harvesting their crops. The Hunter’s Moon is the next full moon after that. The light then is pretty similar to Harvest Moon light. A Blue Moon is not really blue. It is the name given to the second full moon in a month. Sometimes two or three years pass before we get a Blue Moon.

你听过这句古老的说法吗？“月亮是绿奶酪做的。”人们过去一直这么说，直到大约1969年。然后第一批探险家登上了月球。那时我们了解到了关于月球表面的不同情况。例如，我们发现它坚硬且粗糙，有许多陨石坑。

月球是地球唯一的天然卫星。它的直径大约是地球的四分之一，引力小得多。月球表面的宇航员是弹跳着而不是行走。

月球平均每29天绕地球运行一周。它绕地球的轨道不是圆形的，更像是椭圆形。因此，月球与地球的距离会有很大变化。有时它距离地球约25万英里，其他时候只有22万英里远。

月球的背面总是背向地球，但这并不意味着它总是黑暗的。月球的光来自太阳，就像我们太阳系中的其他所有事物一样。

月食相当常见。当地球位于太阳和月球之间时就会发生月食，这时月球的部分或全部光线会被遮挡。

我们通常每个月看到一次满月。某些类型的满月有特定的名称。例如，收获月是最接近秋分（约9月22日）的满月。在它出现后的几天里，月亮在日落后不久就升起，这为收割庄稼的农民提供了额外的光照时间。狩猎月是收获月之后的下一个满月，那时的光线与收获月的光线非常相似。蓝月并不是真的蓝色，它是对一个月内第二次满月的称呼。有时要过两三年我们才能看到一次蓝月。