Friday 5 January 2007

Lunar Libration 2006

An extremely cool video animation of lunar libration throughout 2006. This shows not only how the Moon comes closer and recedes in its orbit, but also the "wobble" or Libation it has.

Yes, not only does the apparent size of the Moon change, but so does the centre of its disc.


Lunar Libation <a href="http://www.photoastronomique.net/geant/0601-0612.swf">here</a>

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wondered at the title whether this might be something menstrual; but in fact it's libration.

Zoe Brain said...

Oops. Corrected :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome. My favourite heavenly body put on a good show last year.eh? Last night's moonrise over Blighty was spectacular too - huge, full, glowing amber.