Are you sure that the far side gets more light in total because of the eclipses?
What about the sunlight reflected from earth to the near side?

Interesting Tsiolkovskiy trivia: ” Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and other scientists (Schmitt was the only trained scientist, a geologist, to walk on the moon) strongly advocated Tsiolkovskiy as the Apollo 17′s, or a later flight’s (which were all canceled), landing site, using small communications satellites deployed from the Command/Service Module for communication from the far side of the moon. NASA vetoed the idea as too risky, and Apollo 17 instead landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley on December 11, 1972.” – wiki

Phil wrote: “The Moon spins almost exactly once for every time it orbits the Earth.”

Why “almost”?

I understand the orbital speed variations due to the eccentricity of the orbit. But ultimately (because of “tidal lock”), as the Moon completes exactly one orbit, hasn’t it also rotated exactly one time?

What is it that I’m not understanding?

Thank you.

“No,” he replied, “I play to win.”

Too bad I’d actually have to BE there for the claim to stick(as in, possession is nine points of the law).

I REALLY need to get my nuc rocket built. Anybody here have access to plutonium rods?

Cool pics. I never knew we could actually see 52 % of the lunar surface from earth. It just never occurred to me that the moon REALLY rocks..

Gary 7

The Earth does appear to move east to west and back in the Moon’s sky, over the course of the lunar cycle. This happens because of the eccentricity of the Moon’s orbit, which means that it moves around the Earth slightly faster than it rotates, for part of the month, and slightly slower the rest of the month.

Perhaps this video of a series of images over the course of a month would help?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051113.html

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

Of course, that’s the Moon from the Earth. I wonder if any of the cameras left on the Moon have taken such a series of images of the Earth?

That was a really clear and concise explanation. I always knew that the moon (as observed from Earth) rocked about a bit so we see about 52% of the surface over time, but I didn’t really understand why. Thanks!

@ Messier Tidy Upper

Just by posting THAT over and over again and again doesn’t make the statement more convincing. We all know how you feel about it! But repeating it ALL the time makes it look like trolling! Would you mind stopping it? Thanks!

Seconded.

“for killing off human space exploration”

When did that happen? The Russians and Chinese are still going to be flying right? So human exploration continues. If you mourn because the guys heading for the Moon won’t be your own citizens, join the club – my countrymen never went there in the first place. My only concern about the forthcoming return to the Moon is that the Chinese are (I’m assuming) likely to be less open, less inclusive about sharing the results with armchair astronauts like me who can’t get enough of it. Plus when would I get the chance to visit their launch sites and hardware museums like we do in Florida? Unlikely.

My understanding of the cancellation was, (and BA wrote extensively on this) that it would allow NASA to focus on deeper (allbeit non manned) exploration, while private concerns, (and the Russians and ESA) took care of LEO missions.

NASA not returning to the Moon is a wrench. We were looking forward to that. But if the Chinese are willing to breech the political/cultural divide then just maybe we can engage with their manned Moon missions too.

BigBob

Or am I just feeding the troll?

Just by posting THAT over and over again and again doesn’t make the statement more convincing. We all know how you feel about it! But repeating it ALL the time makes it look like trolling! Would you mind stopping it? Thanks!

Sometimes being stuck on Earth is a bummer. We miss a lot of stuff! Like, f’rinstance, this view of the Moon which is literally impossible to get from the surface of the Earth.

Yes – and you know who’s responsible for that don’t you?

Thankyou for killing off human space exploration Barack Hussein Obama – NOT.

Obama’s NASA policy means we’re going to be grounded and confined to Earth, stuck going nowhere for decades. The bi-racial pro-Muslim current US president has set us back a very long way indeed and has utterly betrayed space flight supporters, scientists generally, future generations and the legacy of past Apollo glories.

I cannot and will not forget or forgive Obama for this. But, hey, the Muslims are happy .. Oh wait no, they still hate us and always will – until we become Muslim ourselves and end our free way of life.

Fabulous photo of a not-generally-seen side of the Moon.