The Moon....Who saw it last night and tonight.

For all you sky gazers, I thought I'd share something I learned the other day. I thought it was very interesting.

A star moves 1 degree every 72 years
and
it takes 26 thousand years for a star to complete a full orbit around the earth.

Originally posted by virraszto
For all you sky gazers, I thought I'd share something I learned the other day. I thought it was very interesting.

A star moves 1 degree every 72 years
and
it takes 26 thousand years for a star to complete a full orbit around the earth.

cool...

Never knew that before.

Originally posted by heineken

Don't be jealous.

I knew it!

saw the big pretty white circle in the sky tonight and just KNEW that ATS was due for its quarterly "somethings wrong with the moon" thread.


I heart you, ATS.

Originally posted by Manhater

Originally posted by heineken

Don't be jealous.

no..i'm worried really

I'll go outside and see if it's it's clear out and take some pictures. See, if anything hinky is going on.
Then I got to get to studying.
Big biology test tomorrow.

Figures, too cloudy out. There's the moon.

reply to post by virraszto

Not exactly.
You are talking about the pressional cycle, caused by Earth's "wobble" on its axis. The stars do not orbit Earth but the wobble causes the Earths axis to move in a circular motion. This in turn causes the location of the Sun against the background of stars changes at the rate of 1º in about 72 years.

For example, at the vernal equinox the Sun now rises in the constellation Pisces. In 10,000 years it will rise in Virgo.

en.wikipedia.org...

This is the second thread in a week I have read like this.

I am reminded of my niece's fifth-grade teacher who told the class that the moon is only visible at night.

The moon in the east turns "upside down" when it is next seen in the west. If you watch the moon through a rising and setting, you may marvel at this magic trick every single day of every single year.

If you are impatient, you may look up when the moon is almost straight up, and then turn your body while looking up. It has the same magic effect for the exact same reason.

For it's next trick, it will slowly change from full to gibbous and then to crescent over the next two weeks, then crescent from the other side, then gibbous, and then full again two weeks after that. Remember, the great prophet Frira has told you it will be so.

Y'all need to look up more... A LOT more!

Originally posted by Frira
...The moon in the east turns "upside down" when it is next seen in the west. If you watch the moon through a rising and setting, you may marvel at this magic trick every single day of every single year....

...Y'all need to look up more... A LOT more!

I created a graphic last year for another similar thread that illustrates a bit what you are saying. I can't find that thread right now, but I think it was one of those many "OMG!!! The Moon is tilting!" threads.

The arrow in the graphic indicates the "top" of the Moon at Moonrise and how that orientation changes as the Earth rotates during the night (as seen from the mid latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e600c974ad2c.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Phage


I got that info from a video and I can't find it now. I looked in my history and all sorts of ways to find that video again.
I really want to find it and go back and see what she said.
I must have been mistaken or missed a part of it, because I know I wrote down verbatim what the lady said.
Sorry for the misinformation.

A few fun facts...

Last night's full Moon (October 11) was called the "Hunter's Moon", which is traditionally the next full Moon after the "Harvest Moon" (The "Harvest Moon" being the full moon nearest to the Autumnal Equinox).

It's called the "Hunters Moon" because there is a shorter-than-usual lag time between sunset and moonrise, therefore the extra light provided by the "early" Moonrise traditionally aided hunters.

Also, last night's full Moon occurred at the Moon's apogee -- the furthest point away in its orbit of the Earth. Therefore last night''s full Moon was the smallest full Moon of the year.

The largest full Moon this year (when the Moon was at Perigee) occurred in March. That Moon was called the "Storm Moon" because March is traditionally known as a month full of weather changes. Those changing weather patterns may also be associated with the adage "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb".

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by Frira
...The moon in the east turns "upside down" when it is next seen in the west. If you watch the moon through a rising and setting, you may marvel at this magic trick every single day of every single year....

...Y'all need to look up more... A LOT more!

I created a graphic last year for another similar thread that illustrates a bit what you are saying. I can't find that thread right now, but I think it was one of those many "OMG!!! The Moon is tilting!" threads.

The arrow in the graphic indicates the "top" of the Moon at Moonrise and how that orientation changes as the Earth rotates during the night (as seen from the mid latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e600c974ad2c.jpg[/atsimg]

edit on 10/12/2011 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

You are good.

I came back to post again-- without my snarky tone of before. It occurred to me in reading through that there are quite a few really looking up and noticing what they see for the first time.

Actually, it is impressive that someone notices where the craters were when they looked at the moon ten to twelve hours before, and that the orientation had changed relative the their version of "up."

So a few simple conceptual models came to my mind that may be useful for new moonwatchers to better understanding what is observed.

1) If you stood and looked at the moon over the horizon from one of the earth's poles, the the orientation of the moon's surface would not change through the day, but only its position above the horizon. The right side of the moon would still be to your right when you turn to face it, the top would remain at the top, and so on.

Next, imagine yourself closer to the equator, and the with your body on the ground, head pointed north-- as you look at the moon, the orientation is the same as the view from the north pole-- the "right side" as it rises will be the same as when it sets-- always to your right, the "top" always pointing north, and so on.

2) Most people are aware that you can estimate the time of day by the position of the sun in the sky. If you wake in the middle of the night, and want an estimate as to the time, you can do the same thing if the moon is up.

If the moon is full, it is opposite the sun, so, and for example, if close to straight up, it is about midnight. If half way from up to the western horizon, then about three in the morning.

If the moon is gibbous or crescent, the bright part is pointing toward where the sun is below the horizon. If you have a half moon pointing to the eastern horizon, while the moon is nearest it's highest position in the sky, then it is nearly dawn-- or the same half moon rising in the east, it is about midnight.

This is not to memorize the phases and the position, but to understand the relationship of the moon and the sun and the viewer. Once you have that, and know what the craters look like at the poles of the moon, your can not only estimate time by it, but know the cardinal directions at night.

3) When I was kid, my family had a World Book Encyclopedia, and in it was a neat experiment for kids to try, using a basketball (earth), softball (moon) and lamp without a shade (sun). I made a variation of it. I made the valve of the basketball to represent where I was on the earth, and then rotate the ball so that it approximated where the sun was from that point regarding the lamp, and the softball to get the shadow on it to match the moon as I saw it outside. I think I really understood the relationships doing that.

4) When you see a "big ol' moon" on the horizon, extend your hand at arms length, and see how much of it you can block out with just your thumb. Now when the moon is much higher in the sky and looks small, try it again. You will find that the moon has not changed apparent size at all-- it is still that "big ol' moon" but no longer seen against objects which give you comparison, will seem to be smaller than when on the horizon.

5) Despite the appearance due to the earth's spinning on its axis much faster than the moon's orbit, the moon, in fact, is orbiting the earth west to east. Looking down on the earth from the north pole, the earth is spinning on its axis counter-clockwise. The moon is orbiting the earth counter clockwise, and the earth is orbiting the sun counter-clockwise.

Lol, I never said it was a moon conspiracy people.
All, I said was that it looked a bit off and weird.
Geez, some of you all get all worked up.

Originally posted by Manhater
Lol, I never said it was a moon conspiracy people.
All, I said was that it looked a bit off and weird.
Geez, some of you all get all worked up.

I had my own snarky comments (and some I didn't type) just for the sake of your username "Manhater."

I wonder if "Woman-hater" or "Jew-Hater" or "Christian-Hater" or some such would be allowed as a username. I do know I will probably not temper my comments to any of them if I see the username reflects their actual ideology.

Hey I just took a picture of the moon, it came out OK, anyway here it is:



Still looks normal, and fine and OK to me!

Originally posted by Manhater
Lol, I never said it was a moon conspiracy people.
All, I said was that it looked a bit off and weird.
Geez, some of you all get all worked up.

You make a thread about a completely normal looking moon looking weird, and then you accuse US of getting worked up?

Please! You're the one who got worked up enough to make a thread over absolutely nothing.

But you're not the first to do so, and you won't be the last.

reply to post by Arbitrageur




Cool photo of the red moon. That looks nice. I was just taking some pictures of it and looks like one of those were wolf moons with some clouds. Bummer, back to cloud coverage.



I am directing my comment to specifically those telling me to get science education. OK. Not you. BTW made an A on science today. I got the scientific method correct.

reply to post by Frira


Good points.

Another way to think about it would be that if you were on the equator (or anywhere, but it would be more prevalent on the equator), the portion of the Moon that rises first would also be the portion of the Moon that sets first. This is obvious if you think about it.

Therefore, the orientation of the Moon at Moonset will seem "flipped" compared to the orientation at Moonrise. Even though this is obvious when you think about it, there are so many threads here on ATS where people think this is somehow abnormal.

Originally posted by Frira
Next, imagine yourself closer to the equator, and the with your body on the ground, head pointed north-- as you look at the moon, the orientation is the same as the view from the north pole-- the "right side" as it rises will be the same as when it sets-- always to your right, the "top" always pointing north, and so on.

That's more or less the same thing I said here.