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Lunar Libration

Posted May 05, 2015 9:36 AM by Bayes

I came across this great video of Lunar Libration in my internet travels and figured I'd share it. Check it out:

Video of Lunar Libration for 2013

What is Lunar Libration?

Essentially it is the wobble of the moon as it orbits Earth while always showing us the same side. The Moon generally has one hemisphere facing the Earth, due to tidal locking. However, this simple picture is only approximately true: over time, slightly more than half (about 59%) of the Moon's surface is seen from Earth due to libration.

Libration is manifested as a slow rocking back and forth of the Moon as viewed from Earth, permitting an observer to see slightly different halves of the surface at different times.

There are three types of lunar libration:

  • Libration in longitude results from the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit around Earth; the Moon's rotation sometimes leads and sometimes lags its orbital position.
  • Libration in latitude results from a slight inclination between the Moon's axis of rotation and the normal to the plane of its orbit around Earth. Its origin is analogous to how the seasons arise from Earth's revolution about the Sun.
  • Diurnal libration is a small daily oscillation due to the Earth's rotation, which carries an observer first to one side and then to the other side of the straight line joining Earth's and the Moon's centers, allowing the observer to look first around one side of the Moon and then around the other-because the observer is on the surface of the Earth, not at its center.
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Guru
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#1

Re: Lunar Libration

05/05/2015 9:58 AM

You say 'wobble' but it's really only an apparent wobble. The Moon is not actually wobbling.

The 3 bullet points you have go into detail about this. It might be further pointed out that if the Moon's orbit was circular there would be no libration in longitude. The difference between a circular orbit and an elliptical orbit is the cause of this libration, since the Moon's angular rotation rate is fixed but it's rotation speed around the Earth varies as the Moon moves between perigee and apogee. This is the more challenging libration to understand. The other two types are fairly obvious.

Cool video, btw, Good find.

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Lunar Libration

05/05/2015 11:28 AM

That's a good point. It is just a wobble from our perspective, the moon itself is just orbiting.

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#3

Re: Lunar Libration

05/05/2015 5:45 PM

Since the moon's rotation is locked with it's revolution around the earth, the earth stays pretty much in the same place in the lunar sky. However, due to libration, it does move around within a few degrees...

Source:

Earth In Lunar Sky

spaceweathergallery.com730 × 730Search by imageEarth In Lunar Sky Taken by Peter Zimnikoval on March 30, 2015 @ Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

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#4
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Re: Lunar Libration

05/06/2015 12:27 AM

"Since the moon's rotation is locked with it's revolution around the earth, the earth stays pretty much in the same place in the lunar sky".

I would have to disagree with that statement.

Due to the relative masses of both bodies the barycentre of both moon and earth is some 4500km or about 2/3rds of the earth's radius from the centre of the earth, and so the earth and moon actually orbit each other.

It could be argued that part of the visible effect of libration is due to this mutual orbiting which causes an observer on earth to see a circulating view of the moon's surface as the two orbit each other. The view moves both longitudinally and laterally due to the moon's orbital inclination to the ecliptic and is also reinforced to a lesser degree by the gradual movement of the perigee and apogee (line of apsides) around the orbital plane about once every 9 years .

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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Lunar Libration

05/06/2015 12:57 AM

Is there something in your statements that shows Rixter's statement to be incorrect? You are mostly talking about an obsever on Earth, While Rixter is talking about an observer at some point on the near side of the moon, observing the apparent position of the Earth over time. I believe he is correct.

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