GCSE Astronomy — The Lunar Disc

Led by Caroline Herschel

Module 2 of Edexcel GCSE Astronomy. Led by Caroline Herschel — comet-hunter, methodical naked-eye observer, the first woman paid for scientific work. The student learns to recognise the lunar surface by eye and account for the small but real face-changes from one month to the next.

1. Module 2

   The Lunar Disc

   Led by Caroline Herschel

   The question

   What does the Moon's surface look like, what is each kind of feature actually made of, and why does the disc seem to rock slightly from month to month even though it always shows us the same face? The Moon is the brightest, closest, and most-observed body in the sky after the Sun, and the spec asks the student to know it as an observer first — to recognise craters from maria from terrae on sight, to locate the named features by name, to work with both the sidereal and synodic month, and to explain libration and synchronous rotation as more than two memorised words.

   Outcome

   the student can recognise the five principal lunar surface formation types on sight, identify the seven named features called out in the spec, state both the sidereal and synodic periods of the Moon and explain why they differ, define synchronous rotation, and account for the three causes of libration. *(Edexcel 1AS0 Paper 1 — Topic 2, spec points 2.1–2.8)*

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 2.1 Shape, size, and the size-ratio coincidence Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 2.2 Surface formations: recognising and accounting for them Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 2.3 The seven named features Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   4. ○ 2.4 Rotation, revolution, synchronous orbit, and libration Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion