Hey all, I just saw this, thought it was pretty cool. Amazing how much the full moon changes from one month to the next. http://www.photoastronomique.net/geant/0505-0612.html

Thanks, that is cool! You can really see how libration lets us see up to 59% of the lunar surface. From the regions on the limb Earth must be slowly bobbing around and dipping below the horizon.

It will be a very interesting view of Earth from the south pole, when we have a base there. I never realized the moon wobbled so much, but I guess it does...

Most of that motion is not caused by the Moon wobbling, but by the inclination and eccentricity of its orbit.

Phil

I'm aware of that, but it does look like wobbling at least to some point. It's pretty cool, at least I'd say so.

On a similar theme, check out Wikipedia's article on Libration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration

Cheers

Brian

Anyone notice something suspicious on the Planetary Societies's web blog? http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000816/

I guess it all depends on one's definition of "suspicious." What exactly are you referring to? Or do I get 19 more questions?

Guess you get the more questions. I know I had always suspected this form had a large part of what Emily posts on her blog, I hadn't ever noticed quite that much before...

Here's a suggestion for a signature to appear at the bottom of all your posts:

QUOTE

© 2007 tuvas

I assert all rights granted under Sections 107, 108 and other provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act. To use this work electronically, please link to [URL]. All other uses require permission from the publisher.

The thing is - it's almost impossible to think of a space related story that we won't have discussed to death and referenced to death within a day of it coming out anyway. Emily does openly admits that a lot of storys come FROM here, but even if they didn't - there would be huge overlap.

Doug

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, and if I am, I apologize, but, frankly, I thought the use of the term "suspicious" was infra dig. After all, it's not as if Emily didn't add value to a story that was already in the public domain, and APOD isn't exactly hidden.

I am aware of that, but this wasn't shattering news (Although I personally think it's the most interesting APOD I've seen yet), and while I didn't create the article, I did bring it to her attention. Funny how those things work out sometimes. I'm just wondering if Emily did indeed first see the full moons here, that's all. Please also note that I'm not seeking any kind of credit nor anything, I'm just merely commenting that I thought it was kind of cool that I posted something here on UMSF and see it on TPS blog the next day, that's all. I'm glad to be of any help with TPS that is possible.

Actually, there is an APOD from 2001 that shows a single lunation, which I think even more graphically illustrates the Moon's perceived "wobble" during a single orbit of the Earth:

APOD - Lunation

I dunno, this one seems even more illustrative of how the Moon changes its aspect as it orbits us.

-the other Doug

The guy whose 20 moon images were on APOD, Laurent Laveder, has his own lunation image and animation here. (Nice guy.)

And yes, tuvas, I did first notice the APOD posting from your post -- I go to UMSF first thing in the morning while Outlook is crunching on my mail, bringing in the day's press releases, before (if I have time) I read my RSS feeds and go check out stuff like APOD and the various mission websites. As Doug said, UMSF is full of people who are vigilantly watching all of these sources, and it's definitely the easiest place to pick up on 90% of what's going on in planetary science news because of that. Often, though, it takes me a day or twenty to post something, because I do try to add a little something in the form of thought or research rather than reposting what everyone else has done...though I'll be the first to admit that both thought and research have been less than I used to do over the last, um, 8 months...it's always a relief to find a great image (like this one) that pretty much speaks for itself.

--Emily

Emily,

I'm well aware that you do your own research on anything, which means it's worthwhile for me to read your posts, even if they are about HiRISE which I should in theory know more than you, but occasionally I find myself learning stuff from the planetary blog. Thank you for your dedication to all of us out there.

As to your morning routine, well, it's something like mine I suppose, but...