The sun and moon are beautiful pages to color. When you look at the sun and moon to think about colors, you are studying the sun and moon. That is called Astronomy. You are studying the universe beyond the Earth’s atmosphere or the space that holds the stars, planets, sun, and moon.
Welcome to our collection of free SUN AND MOON coloring pages. Click the Sun and Moon pictures or illustrations you like and you’ll be taken to the PDF download and/or print page. Every coloring page is a printable PDF and/or can be downloaded.
More Nature coloring collections: Beach Coloring Pages | Flower Coloring Pages | Succulent Coloring Pages | Sushi Coloring Pages | Tree House Coloring Pages | Moon Coloring Pages | Bunny Coloring Pages | Fox Coloring Pages
The Sun Stands Still in the Sky
Even though it looks like the sun is going around us, it is the Earth going around the sun in two ways. The Earth spins on its axis every day. We see the sun coming up or rising in the east and going down in the west as we turn on our axis. The spinning around makes our day and night, when it gets dark or when the sun shines on us.
The Earth moves entirely around the sun in its orbit once a year, so the Earth spins two different ways. We have our seasons since the Earth rotates on its axis and orbits around the sun. Sometimes it is cold, like winter, other times it is hot, like summer.
The Earth rotates around the sun and travels 30 kilometers per second or 67,000 miles per hour. That is fast, even though we don’t feel the spinning. The sun is about 93 million miles away from us. It is good that it is so far away; we would burn up if it were closer to us because it is so hot. The sun is a giant star that burns brightly.
The Moon Goes Around the Earth and is Dark
The moon does not have any light, even though it looks bright in the sky. The sun reflects or shines on the moon and makes it look lit up. Instead of going around the moon as we do with the sun, the moon goes around us. The moon is about 238,855 miles away from us; if we flew in a spaceship or rocket, it would take us three days to get there, and we would be traveling extremely fast.
A Trip to the Moon
The first rocket went into space more than fifty years ago and landed on the moon. That was in 1969. When they landed on the moon, a man got out of the rocket in his spacesuit and said, “That’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.” His name was Neil Armstrong, so he is a very famous astronaut. Since then, about fourteen different people have landed on the moon. It is so exciting to study space travel and astronomy.
Solar Eclipse: Is the Sun Hiding?
A Solar Eclipse happens when the moon passes on its path between the Earth and the sun just at the right time. There can be partial eclipses called an Annular Solar Eclipse; these only cover part of the sun. Or it could be a total eclipse, where the sun looks like it has disappeared. An annular eclipse happens two to five times a year, but a total eclipse only happens once every 18 months or two times in three years.
A total eclipse makes the sun look like it is hiding from us. It is a little weird feeling because right in the middle of the day, it becomes dark, just for a few minutes, though. Sometimes, animals can get confused during an eclipse; the birds chirp loudly and dogs bark. I guess it feels weird to the animals too.
We cannot always see an eclipse when it is happening. You have to be in just the right part of the Earth to see the eclipse. There is a lot to think about while we are coloring our sun and moon page. The sun and moon are a very important part of our world. It is very interesting to learn about astronomy, especially the sun and moon.
