The Unseen Moon

Click on the Moon!

Moon Animation courtesy of Laurent Laveder: http://www.photoastronomique.net

We take the Moon for granted.  It inspires lovers and lights the way through the darkness and is regarded as a bright nuisance by astronomers trying to view faint fuzzy objects.  Yet, the Moon is very poorly understood by the general public.  For instance people often think of the far side of the moon as the "dark side".  Don't believe it.  The far side gets as much sunlight as the side facing us.  The Moon goes through phases.  When we see a full moon, the far side is in darkness.  When we see a crescent moon, part of the far side is lit as well.  When we have a "New Moon" and the side facing us is in darkness, the rear side of the moon is bathed in sunlight. 

Another interesting aspect of moon-watching is "Libration".  You can see it in this wonderful animation created by french astronomer and photographer Laurent Laveder.  It is a series of 12 consecutive pictures of the full moon throughout the year.  If you look closely you will see that the the moon seems to wobble a bit showing a little more of its surface on the right and then on the left.  This is due to the Moon's slightly elliptical orbit around the Earth.  As a result, 59% of the Moon's surface is visible to us over time.  You will also notice that the Moon seems to grow and then shrink.  This is also due to the elliptical path the Moon takes as it orbits our Earth.  It is closer to us at some times and further away at others.  We don't notice this because it happens gradually and also because we judge the size of objects by reference to other objects close by.

The Moon presents the same face to us because it takes as long for it to rotate as it does to revolve around us.  This is due to the tidal forces of Earth pulling on the Moon. 

Once again mankind is looking at the Moon with the thought of setting foot and perhaps establishing a manned research station on its surface.  The USA and China have both announced their intentions to go there.  It's a hot topic amongst the scientific community because of the huge monetary commitment which some say drains precious funding dollars from other space science projects.  Whatever happens, we can still enjoy our friendly cosmic neighbour.

Comments

[Air Jordan shoes]

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.