Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Wondering about Libration.

No, the title didn't say "libation", which means an alcoholic drink, although too much libation may cause you to see some extra librations.  I am only going to talk about librations affecting the moon.


First, in case any of you don't know what librations are, I will copy a definition from the "World English Dictionary" (an on line dictionary) here:

World English Dictionary
libration  (laɪˈbreɪʃən) 
 
 n
1.the act or an instance of oscillating
2.a real or apparent oscillation of the moon enabling approximately
59 per cent of the surface
 to be visible from the earth over a period of time.
 
[C17: from Latin librātus,  from librāre  to balance]
 
li'brational
 
 adj

The moon is tidally locked to the earth, allowing us to see only one side of it.  But because of its libration, or rocking from side to side, we can see much more of it over time.  We can see from slightly different angles.  But, only the astronauts have seen the "dark side" side of the moon, which, by the way is not always dark.  People just started calling the other side, "the dark side" and it stuck.  But although we know a lot about it, and men have walked on it, and left their junk sitting on it, it is still a romantic sight.  Now, have a great day and don't spend too much time howling at the moon, you hear?    

11 comments:

  1. cough and sneeze at the moon is about my limit for now.

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    1. Get over that cold so you can have too much fun.

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  2. Huh, what,,, did I miss something? Dozed off back there... lol. Are you letting that 2-14 date get to ya?,,, Romantic sight?,, well ok.

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    1. How did you know when my birthday was? Now you know where I get all my charm (grin).

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  3. Kinda sorta like those old cartoon cards where you moved the thing a bit and you would see another view where the character moved, like swinging a bat at a ball or the wife smacking hubby with frying pan. Now that was entertainment! A two frame movie. Libration.

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    1. Yep, I liked those cards. Dang Jimkabob, you must be getting almost as old as I am to remember all that old stuff. . .

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    2. yep, but it's the new stuff that's unrecallable. I can even hide my own Easter eggs.

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  4. I don't know that I have ever seen pictures of the dark side of the moon, although I surely must have. Will have to look that up..

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    1. There are a lot of pictures out there of the "dark side" of the moon, It looks a lot different than the side facing us, a lot more craters. The dark side gets hit with more stuff than the side facing us.

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  5. Dizzy... I read, but sometimes you're just too far over my head. Maybe if I stayed up past 9pm I might see more of what you're a'talkin.

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    1. If we ever meet up maybe we can go out and howl at the moon.

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