Tag Info

Accepted

What is the **actual** average distance of the Moon from Earth?

Mean distance averaged over time for any Keplerian orbit is $a(1+\frac{1}{2}e^2)$, where $a$ is the semi-major axis and $e$ is the eccentricity. Using your NASA fact sheet, I get about 384,979 km for ...
• 13.6k

What is the **actual** average distance of the Moon from Earth?

Lunar theory is complicated. ;) The Moon's orbit around the Earth is only approximately a constant Keplerian ellipse. As I mentioned here, the Moon's orbit around the Earth-Moon barycentre has an ...
• 8,862

What is the **actual** average distance of the Moon from Earth?

Your guess on the requirement for calculus is correct. What you need to do is integrate the moon's distance over one orbit to find an average distance. Starting from the equation below, the Moon's (or ...
• 14.4k
Accepted

Is there a Lagrange point between the earth and the moon?

Yes. The Earth-Moon system has a Lagrange point L1, positioned between the Earth and the Moon, It is about 85% of the distance to the moon (about 320000km compared to 380000km.) A body at L1 would ...
• 87.6k

Is there a Lagrange point between the earth and the moon?

@JamesK's answer is good, but I'll address some of your points more specifically. Is there a Lagrange point between the Earth and Moon... Yes, it is called Earth-Moon L1 (to distinguish it from Sun-...
• 31.6k

Is there a Lagrange point between the earth and the moon?

Yes, the Earth-Moon system has Lagrange points, and Wikipedia has a short list of satellites that have (or will) orbited near L2, L4 or L5. Neither L1 nor L3 appear to be popular. The Moon's orbit ...
• 8,862
1 vote

Can the Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ observe the moon during day time?

There should be absolutely no problem at all seeing the bright, sun-illuminated part of the Moon during the day at 1000 mm / 20 mm = 50x through your telescope. The part that's not illuminated by the ...
• 31.6k
1 vote
Accepted

How much energy to shorten a synodic month by about 1.56%?

The best we can do is estimate. Using $\frac{1}{S}=\frac{1}{P_{moon}}+\frac{1}{P_{earth}}$ (sign is positive as Sun and Moon moves opposite in the geocentric frame) you can get the corresponding ...
• 136

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible