Questions tagged [the-moon]
Questions regarding Earth's only natural satellite. For questions about the natural satellites of other planets, use the tag [natural-satellite].
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Exact ecliptic position of Earth and Moon from Mars as photographed by Curiosity Rover?
I've been studying the idea of travelling through space and navigation - in particular: Apollo sextant (used by astronauts to plot the position of their spacecraft relative to stars). And, in order to ...
user37745
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How to find the moons maximum culmination at a location
Forgive me if my terminology is incorrect, but is there someway or somewhere when I can calculate based on my location when the moon will be at the highest point in the sky overhead based on my ...
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How does one go about submitting a name for a newly-discovered lunar crater?
Suppose I discover an uncatalogued crater on the lunar surface, and decide to name it. How would I submit my proposed name to the IAU?
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How does one go about naming a lunar crater? [duplicate]
Suppose I discover an uncatalogued crater on the lunar surface, and decide to name it. How would I submit my proposed name to the IAU?
jw01
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Where are Moon's Apogee and Perigee? Do they rotate too?
Where are Moon's Apogee and Perigee? Which one is inside, towards the Sun, between Sun and earth?
Do they rotate too just like the north, south node?
Does Moon always need to be on Apogee/Perigee ...
- 545
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Why does the angular size of the Moon change?
I know that the orbit of the moon is elliptical.
But I cannot understand this graph:
The number of 'bumps' in the graph is around 13~14 in a year, so I concluded that the each 'bump' indicates one ...
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A plot of the Moon-rise/sets on the Horizon Location
We have been trying to see where the moon rises/sets on the horizon. Unfortunately, the moon is not cooperating. Even when we know the moon rise/set times (timeanddate.com), we often cannot find ...
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Meteor size and frequency distribution for Earth vs. moon or other planets?
I struggle to find an answer to the at-first-sight simple question if or how the size distribution and frequency distribution of incoming rocks hitting the ground or the atmosphere vary from Earth, to ...
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North node, South node correct understanding
What is the correct concept of the North node and South node? There is some conflicting information on the internet.
Which one of these two is correct?
1. Sourced from some Astrology material - How ...
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Does a lunar occultation of Mars happen twice a year?
The Space Exploration SE question When our Moon is hiding Mars, is it possible to create a radio communication between Earth and Mars? links to this short article in the popular press Mars is hiding ...
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Moons with curlicue paths around our Sun?
I naively believed that since our Moon orbits Earth, and since Earth orbits the Sun, the path our Moon might take around the Sun would be this type of epitrochoid curve:
I was surprised and delighted ...
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Why isn't the moon's surface made of mini craters?
I thought that the millions of mini rocks that hit the moon would cause it to be entirely cratered and not flat.
Why is the moon not like this:
why aren't craters visible in the footprint photo?
- 4,098
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Determining the percentage area of the moon's disk shaded with respect to time
I've looked online and I've found sources such as this paper on a lunar phase simulator as well as this article about lunar phases.
I'd like to be able to model the area of the lunar disk which is ...
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How to map moon phase number + "lunation" to moon phase name?
I am querying an API (weatherbit) which returns a moon phase number which looks like this:
0.9594168
For the 16 days I look at the numbers vary from 0.006 to 0.99.
I have 8 "moon phase" ...
- 131
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Has the Earth-facing side of the Moon that we see today always faced us ever since the Moon got tidally locked? Or does it precess?
Title. Does the Earth-facing side of the Moon slowly precess due to perturbations and torques exerted by other bodies? Or is the side of the Moon we see today the same as when it first got tidally ...
- 2,413
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What is the duration of the era during which it will be possible to perceive a total solar eclipse?
Total solar eclipses occur because the Moon and the Sun have the same apparent size in Earth's sky — the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, but the Moon is about 400 times closer.
It's my ...
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How long was a lunar month in ancient times?
As the Moon is getting farther and farther from Earth, it's natural that the time it takes to circle around our planet is going to increase, thus the month will be longer.
However, I read that the ...
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Do our sun and moon have names?
We seem to have named every moon orbiting other planets. Why haven't we named our own moon? And for that matter, why doesn't our sun have a name since we name or number stars?
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How to I calcuate observed position of the Sun and Moon using the SOFA C library?
There are a number of answers on here that skirt the topic, but no concrete answers.
I currently have an implementation based on "Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus" for stars, moon, and ...
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What happens if the Moon moves twice as fast?
If the Moon would rotate around the Earth with double its current speed.
What would happen then?
Would it get further from the Earth or it would be possible to keep its distance from Earth?
- 507
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What's the difference between a crater and a basin?
When I was searching the name of the Moon's largest crater, many websites said that it was the South Pole-Aitken Basin. But in some definitions I've found, the word "crater" is used to ...
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How can I find a date when the moon at zenith over a specific spot on the equator?
I would like to know when the moon is directly overhead 0° S, 166° E. Are there any websites that will show me any of those dates?
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What are "p" and "r" wrt the moon?
Still learning, thinking - and failing - about the moon.
timeanddate.com has this cute and dynamic moon sketch at e.g. https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/uk/london
They generate this based on three ...
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How do I calculate the elevation angle to the horizon?
I'm creating an app to visualize the southern area of the moon from a first-person perspective. I'm trying to determine if a point on the surface is a "checkpoint," where the elevation angle ...
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Should the synodic period or the orbital period be used to determine the diameter of the Moon?
Aristarchus famously used a lunar eclipse to determine the diameter and the distance of the Moon, given that a lunar eclipse can last up to 3 hours and the angular diameter of the Moon is 0.5°.
Using ...
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Does the Honey moon have a precession problem?
In Steven Colbert's interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson after about 03:16 the following is explained:
But wait, all the moons - all the full moons of the year have ...
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Could it have been possible for the Moon to be split without any observable effect on Earth?
Before asking my question, I'd like to clarify why I'm asking about something so absurd. A supersitious claim has been bought to me that in the past, the moon was split and seperated as a sign. My ...
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Which is a better way to increase magnification - by choosing an eyepiece of lesser focal length or by choosing a telescope with higher focal length? [duplicate]
Magnification of a telescope = (focal length of telescope / focal length of the eyepiece being used)
$$M=\frac{f_{objective}}{f_{eyepiece}}$$
If I want 75 X magnification and the following are the two ...
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Does tidal locking also slowly reduce the orbiting body's axial angle?
The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, and it has an axial angle of 6.687 degrees relative to its orbital plane. I'd like to know: did the Moon start out with a higher axial angle?
In other words, ...
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Does the Sun and Moon basically appear to "move on the sky" identically regardless of location and date?
For a long time, I've been trying to use Stellarium (simulation) and many visualizations and animations in order to get a good idea of how the Sun and Moon move across the sky, as seen by a human from ...
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What orbital period would produce one New Moon (and one Full Moon) each year? What other effects would this produce?
I am interested to know whether it's possible for the moon to orbit the earth at such a rate that we would see only one New Moon and one Full Moon a year. If so, what other effects would we experience?...
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How many days a month can you see a moonrise during daylight?
For about 15 days before a Full Moon the moon rises during the day, and for about 15 days after a Full Moon the moon sets during the day. I think it might be possible at full moon for the moon to rise ...
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133
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Powerful-enough telescopes to observe the Lunar Roving Vehicle from Earth?
Apparently, not even the Hubble telescope (which is actually in orbit, not even on Earth) is powerful enough to observe the LVR... will we ever have the technology to observe the LVR from Earth?
(it ...
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When was the variation of apparent diameter of the moon first measured?
The orbit of the Moon around the Earth isn't quite a circle. Since distance between the Earth and the Moon changes over time, the apparent diameter of the Moon also varies very slightly. With a ...
- 17.1k
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How to calculate the moon's illuminated fraction tilt?
I use "Astronomical algorithms" book by Jean Meeus for programming algorithms for the moon data calculations. I've already created a lot of methods but stuck on the calculation of the moon's ...
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Measuring parallax angle, same local time or the same time
I was thinking about measure the distance to the moon using parallax angle. But I have a confusion. I have read couple of articles about that, but one thing is unclear. Should we take pictures of moon ...
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Considering that the moon’s gravitational pull on earth is so weak- we need special instruments to detect it- how does it cause the tides?
That the moon’s gravitational pull is responsible for the tides is established. However, if we want to detect the moon’s gravitational pull on earth, this is very challenging. This seems to be a ...
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How high were the tides back when the Moon was much closer to Earth?
In this article it is stated that the Moon was originally much closer to Earth at a distance of 22,500 km rather than the 384,400 km it is today. What was the height of the tides back then in meters? ...
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How accurate is Stellarium at depicting the Earth, from the Moon, approaching a solar eclipse (from Lunar perspective)?
This is how Stellarium depicts the positions of the Earth and Sun 24 hours before the solar eclipse (from Lunar perspective) on Jan. 13, 2131
A close up of the Earth on that day (Jan 12) shows no ...
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Small changes to Earth's orbit caused by a large impact on the Moon
Is there any scenario where a large impactor striking the far side of the Moon would perturb the Earth's orbit enough to reduce the distance from the Earth to the Sun and still remain within the ...
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Why does time pass faster in moon than the earth?
One of my friends said that,
time passes faster in moon than the earth
Why does time pass faster on the moon than on the earth?
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How to search SIMBAD using identifiers?
I'm trying to get some data about the moon from SIMBAD (specifically, radiation spectrum in certain wavelengths), and I encountered an unexpected problem: I can't find the Moon.
In SIMBAD, I can ...
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Celestron Nexstar 102GT
Good day folks.
My Grandson would like to start using this Telescope Celestron Nexstar GT102, has been in the basement for years, and unfortunately, we appear to have misplaced the eyepieces.
Just ...
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Why does the moon looks like having different filters sometimes?
Why does the moon look more yellow or more LED-like?
Thanks in advance
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How did the Archimedes crater fill with lava?
This is the Archimedes crater, on the moon, near the Apollo 15 landing site.
It is located in Mare Imbrium, a plain filled with lava.
The strange thing is that the interior of the crater looks flat, ...
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can moon rise before sun and set after it in the same day
I found it mentioned in ancient Arabic astronomic book Kitāb al-Amwāl by Ibn Qutaybah (889 AD)
Cresent can't be seen in the morning in the east in front of the sun and in the evening i the west ...
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How much (more or less) of the moon will be visible as it recedes from the Earth?
The Moon is receding from the Earth, at a rate of about 4 cm per year. We can currently see about 59% of the Moon's surface, from the Earth's surface.
Will the amount of the Moon's surface we can see ...
- 203
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Timekeeping on other celestial bodies than Earth
I have looked for months for any site capable of calculating solar altitude w.r.t an observer located on the surface of a generic celestial bodies, but with no luck as of now. Even NASA does not ...
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Angular diameter result confirmation
Not being a math-minded person at all, however basic it might appear to be to all of you in this particular question, I would like to get the following calculation confirmed.
I'm trying to calculate ...
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Is it possible to completely see the edge of a half moon at night?
Some days ago, about 1 ~ 1.5 hours after the sunset I could see a very bright half moon, and the interesting part is, I think I could see the edge of the dark half of the moon, i.e. a whole circle, ...
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