Astronomy Picture of the Day |
APOD: 2005 November 13 - Lunation
Explanation:
Our Moon's appearance changes nightly.
This time-lapse sequence shows
what our Moon looks like during a
lunation, a complete lunar cycle.
As the
Moon orbits the
Earth,
the half illuminated by the
Sun first becomes increasingly visible,
then decreasingly visible.
The Moon always keeps the same face toward the Earth.
The Moon's apparent size changes slightly, though,
and a slight wobble called a
libration is discernable as it progresses along its elliptical orbit.
During the
cycle, sunlight reflects from the
Moon
at different angles, and so illuminates different features differently.
A full
lunation takes about 29.5 days, just under a month
(moon-th).
APOD: 2003 May 22 - Eclipsed Moon Montage
Explanation:
After watching this month's lunar eclipse, amateur astronomer
Sebastien Gauthier carefully composed this montage of
telescopic images of the
Moon sliding through
planet Earth's shadow.
While the deepest part of the total eclipse corresponds to
the central exposure, the play of light across
the
lunar surface nicely demonstrates that the planet's shadow is not
uniformly dark as it extends into space.
In fact, lunar maria and montes are
still visible in the dimmed, reddened sunlight scattered into
the cone-shaped
shadow region, or umbra, by Earth's atmosphere.
For this eclipse, the
Moon's trajectory took it North of the
umbra's darker core, seen here cast over the
Moon's cratered
southern highlands.
Gauthier's telescope and camera equipment were set up near the
Trois-Rivieres College
Champlain Observatory
in Quebec, Canada.
APOD: 1998 May 3 - Standing on the Moon
Explanation:
Humans once walked on the Moon. Pictured
above is the second person to stand on the lunar surface: Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin. During this Apollo
11
mission, Neil
Armstrong
(the first person to walk on the moon) and Buzz Aldrin
landed on the Moon while Michael Collins
circled in the Command
Module
above. The lunar team
erected a plaque on the surface that reads: HERE MEN FROM THE
PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969
A.D. WE CAME
IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND. The
Apollo missions demonstrated that
it is possible to land humans on the Moon
and return them safely.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and
Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply.
A service of:
EUD at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.