BBC Sky at Night

CAPTURE

Imaging lunar libration

Capture contrasting images that reveal the ‘extra’ areas at the Moon’s edges

The Moon is gravitationally locked to Earth, rotating once on its axis in the same period of time that it takes to orbit our planet. For us on the ground, this means we see the same familiar face of the Moon all the time. There is, however, a small variation in the Moon’s appearance over time, due to an effect called ‘libration’. This describes the cumulative effects introduced

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