Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with moon

Please help me find when the moon disappears, so I can watch it.

Kickstart70 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:27:55 -0800

Back about a decade ago, I happened to be watching in early evening as the moon went from thin sliver to complete disappearance. It was one of those unexpected and somewhat wondrous moments of my life (due to many circumstances of the time, and the unplanned coolness of it). I'd like to see it again. Is there some schedule for me to tell when this is going to happen again visible from my area? 53N,-122.36W, if that helps.

Help me find my moon story!

mahke — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:18:50 -0800

Please help me find this SciFi story I remember reading as a kid. This is what I remember - unfortunately I can't remember if it was an extended short story or a novel (I read it in school, about 20-25 years ago!).

This is what I do remember:

* the setting is the moon, where a colony live in an air-tight dome
* two friends steal a moon buggy to go for a joy ride
* the end up crashing into/through a crater, and discover a hidden pocket of oxygen in which they can breathe, and in which vegetation/flowers etc have thrived

Not sure what else happens to be honest, but hopefully that's enough to go on!

What has the Moon done for us in the last 39 years?

tip120 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:56:51 -0800

What terrestrial technologies did the Apollo program, in particular the manned missions to the Moon, yield? While the space race provided many advances in computers, communications and knowledge about what goes on beyond the Earth's atmosphere, what specific technological advances were gained through the moon landings?

During the uptick of Apollo 11 nostalgia the last few days, many news stories talked about the "technological advances" that the moon shot have created. What technologies, specifically, can we claim our physical presence on the moon brought?

(Please bear in mind, I am an adult who still hasn't recovered from the realization I will not be an astronaut. I am not disparaging the overall effort of the endeavor, not dismissing it, just curious.)

Apollo HD

run"monty — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:01:05 -0800

Where on the internets can I find HD raw footage of the Apollo programme? (for free) ...particularly footage of the LM leaving the CSM.

There's plenty of video around but it all seems to be low res, low quality tape transfer.

Strong man in the moon?

Gungho — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:44:25 -0800

With the advent of NASA's return to the moon I have a question of whether or not The Apollo astronauts could have recovered from a less than perfect landing. The new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) can map the moons surface with much greater detail than in the time of the Apollo landings. During the descent of the Apollo 11 Lunar lander Niel Armstrong had to fly over an unexpected boulder field. Assuming he didn't, and landed the LEM, and it tipped over, could the two astronauts tip it back up so that it could launch again?

Can you always see the Moon from the Earth?

Dub — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:25:56 -0800

Is there anywhere on Earth, where you can't see the Moon? Of course, I mean the surface of the Earth!, and when the Moon is visible from other places on Earth

I suppose what I'm wondering is can you always see the Moon from the Poles. If not, is there a latitude above/below which a full Moon might be below the horizon.

BTW: I've no idea if this is a sensible question... I just woke-up with this thought in my head, and couldn't quickly find an answer.

give me the moon

timepiece — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:32:40 -0800

I copied a short javascript to display the moonphase from a webpage, and made a few minor tweaks, and it appears to have a few problems. For instance, the moon phase occasionally shows up as "undefined"; I don't know enough about javascript to fix it, please help. So, I wanted to display the moon phase as part of my custom portal. You can see the page here (I display it in a sidebar in Firefox with a userstyle defined in the browser, if you're wondering why it's so oddly laid out and ugly).

I did make a few tweaks to this, but mostly just changing the display text (abbreviated day of week, etc.). I also managed to figure out how to round off the "days old" display (because "the moon is 1.6999999999999993 days old" looks ridiculous). Here is the code as I have it:

function getMoonAge(year, month, day) {	

		d = Math.floor(year/20)

		r = year-(d*20) //r is the remainder of (year/20)

		while (r>9)

		{	r = r-19	}

		r = r*11

		while (r>29)

		{	r = r-30	}

		if (month<3)

		{	month = month+2		}

		r = r+month+day

		if (year<100)

		{	r = r-4		}

		else

		{	r = r-8.3	}

		while(r>29)

		{	r = r-30	}

		while(r<0)

		{	r = r+30	}

		return r

	}

		

function getMoonPhase(moonAge) {	

		if (moonAge<1) return "New"

		if (moonAge<6) return "Waxing Crescent"

		if (moonAge<9) return "First Quarter"

		if (moonAge<13) return "Waxing Gibbous"

		if (moonAge<16) return "Full"

		if (moonAge<20) return "Waning Gibbous"

		if (moonAge<23) return "Last Quarter"

		if (moonAge<25) return "Waning Crescent"

		if (moonAge<29) return "Waning Crescent"

		if (moonAge<1) return "New"

	}



function getMoonPhaseImg(moonAge) {	

		if (moonAge<1) return "New"

		if (moonAge<5) return "Waxing_Crescent"

		if (moonAge<9) return "First_Quarter"

		if (moonAge<13) return "Waxing_Gibbous"

		if (moonAge<16) return "Full"

		if (moonAge<20) return "Waning_Gibbous"

		if (moonAge<22) return "Last_Quarter"

		if (moonAge<25) return "Waning_Crescent"

		if (moonAge<29) return "Waning_Crescent"

		if (moonAge<30) return "New"

}



// name arrays

	monthNames = new Array(13)

	monthNames[1]  = "Jan"

	monthNames[2]  = "Feb"

	monthNames[3]  = "March"

	monthNames[4]  = "April"

	monthNames[5]  = "May"

	monthNames[6]  = "June"

	monthNames[7]  = "July"

	monthNames[8]  = "August"

	monthNames[9]  = "Sept"

	monthNames[10] = "Oct"

	monthNames[11] = "Nov"

	monthNames[12] = "Dec"

			 

	dayNames = new Array(8)

	dayNames[1]  = "Sun"

	dayNames[2]  = "Mon"

	dayNames[3]  = "Tues"

	dayNames[4]  = "Wed"

	dayNames[5]  = "Thurs"

	dayNames[6]  = "Fri"

	dayNames[7]  = "Sat"

		 

function getLongDate(dateObj) {	

	theDay = dayNames[dateObj.getDay()+1]

	theMonth = monthNames[dateObj.getMonth()+1]

	theDate = dateObj.getDate()

	return ""+theDay+", "+theMonth+" "+theDate

}

		

function getNextFull(moonAge) {	

	currMilSecs = (new Date()).getTime()

	daysToGo = 15 - moonAge

	while(daysToGo<2)

	{	daysToGo = daysToGo+29 	}

	milSecsToGo = daysToGo*24*60*60*1000

	nextMoonTime = currMilSecs+milSecsToGo

	nextMoonDate = new Date(nextMoonTime)

	return nextMoonDate

}

		

function getNextNew(moonAge) {	

	currMilSecs = (new Date()).getTime()

	daysToGo = 29 - moonAge

	while(daysToGo<2) 	

	{ 	daysToGo = daysToGo+29 	}

	milSecsToGo = daysToGo*24*60*60*1000

	nextMoonTime = currMilSecs+milSecsToGo

	nextMoonDate = new Date(nextMoonTime)

	return nextMoonDate

}

The main problem: today, this is what I am seeing:
Wed, Jan 28
The moon is 30 days old
undefined [should be moon phase]
New moon: Wed, Feb 25
Full moon: Wed, Feb 11

Yeah, moon phases generally aren't more than 29 days old, and I don't know why it's doing that. The new moon was the 26th, so it should have gone to the next phase by now. The page I copied it from says:

Today is Wednesday, Jan 28.
The moon is
Waxing Cresent. [sic]
The current lunar month is 1.6999999999999993 days old.
Next new moon: Tuesday, Feb 24.
Next full moon: Tuesday, Feb 10.

So I guess I must have messed it up somewhere, but I don't know how. Probably part of the rounding-off thing I tried, seeing those slightly different dates for the next new and full moons.

It's minor (I know from experience it'll be correct by Friday) and I'm the only one who sees it, but it's still annoying. How do I fix it?

Earth-Like Gas Giant Moons

Electrius — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:11:54 -0800

What would be the conditions required on the moon of a gas giant to support Earth life? Let's say you have a moon of a gas giant in some fictional star system much like our own. If a spaceship from Earth came there, what would the parameters be if the settlers wanted to touch down and build some cities without being under domes?

My thoughts are that it would need to be a small gas giant, and the moon would have to orbit very close to it (since moons of gas giants seem to inevitably experience tidal lock, and you need to have days that are relatively in sync with Earth days, right?) but this would mean that only half the planet would receive sunlight and be habitable-- thereby making the rest into a featureless icescape, with a permanently crepuscular region between the two? Can I solve this by giving the moon a strong ecliptic tilt? Would this put the moon too close to form in the first place or too close to maintain its shape? Would it bathe the surface in too much radiation for life to exist? Would tidal forces turn it into a barren volcanic wasteland? If it had an orbit at something of an angle to the gas giant's orbit, would the problems be mostly resolved?

In addition to the parameters of its physical location, what kinds of unusual astronomical phenomena could inhabitants expect to see on the surface, if any?

I'm a Latin major who has only a casual and mostly science-fictional interest in astrophysics, and I only want a relatively vague idea. If you know of a book or article that basically answers this question, please point me to it. Google turned up some things but I want more and more complete answers, since of course this is kind of a bizarre subject and I doubt much concrete research has been done on it.

Moon Palace by Paul Auster! help!

freddymetz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:02:04 -0800

Moon Palace by Paul Auster! help! I need to find out how the characters are entwined and about the pyschological development of the main characters.
I need some hints or resources where to start, im not trying to get metafilter to do my homework for me!

When was Walker crater named?

np312 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:23:20 -0800

How can I find out when this particular crater on the moon was named? I want to know when the Walker Crater (named for Joe Walker, the test pilot killed in 1966) got its name. I haven't been able to find any info except its location on the moon and its size. Can someone else either find out when it was so named, or else help me find a way to find out?

Thank you!

Photo series of paper miniatures of imagined trip to Moon or Mars from late '70s?

chr1sb0y — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:44:42 -0800

Can you help me locate a series of photos of an imagined trip to Mars (or maybe a return to the Moon?) done in papercraft, that was in one of my grade school textbooks around 1979? I have had visions of these photos stuck in my head since around 4th or 5th grade (1979 or 1980), and I would really love to find them again. I am pretty sure that they were in one of my 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade reading textbooks, from around 1978, '79, or '80.

They were a series of photos meant to predict what a trip to Mars might look like in the near future - but it's possible it was about a return to the Moon, and I've gotten confused. The photos were of miniature rockets, landers, rovers, habitats, astronauts, etc., all done with finely detailed miniature paper models - white paper possibly with some black ink details. The photos were done so that they looked like simulations of a rocket ship in transit against a black starry sky, astronauts exploring the surface of the planet with starry sky in the background, plus rough terrain along the horizon, etc. I am pretty sure I remember some stuff being made of graph paper (maybe the craters and terrain?), and some stuff being made of white paper, folded and squished, with a bit of black ink for details.

In my mind, the miniatures are some sort of weird combination of ultra-detailed origami, and paper architectural models (half folded and half glued and crumpled). The style was very much NASA-realistic, almost like an architect's rendering of a possible future mission.

These photos have been stuck in my head for so long, and I know it's a long shot, but maybe someone will remember these as well, or some askmefi-user's uncle will turn out to be the guy who shot them.

I'm no astronaut.

ben242 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:47:08 -0800

How can I give my girlfriend an engagement ring with a stone made of moon rock? My girlfriend and I are sort of post-hippie types who tend to buck tradition. We're not ready to get married yet, but I think its pretty likely in the next 1-2 years, and I want to get her a ring with a stone made of things Not Of This World. Does NASA hold auctions? What about the Russians? The Soviet space program had moon rocks, right? Or can I count on the Chinese to go to space and bring back enough rocks to make them cheaper than a lead-doped Barbie?

If and when I get my hands on a piece of our lunar neighbor, can I get a geologist or a jeweler to work with it? I don't care about the shapes you typically get with cut diamond -- in fact, the more authentic, the better.

Should I be worried about the longevity of the rock? Will our lame-ass atmosphere cause it to degrade and turn to dust in our lifetimes?

Holy Blithering $#&! I'm standing on the #*!@ing moon

johnstein — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:00:43 -0800

I want to share the truth of the Moon Landing with my friends... But the site is down. As anyone who clicked the link can see, the site is down. This is one of the funniest clips I've seen online and have wanted to show it to other people, but I can't find any mirrors of it anywhere and my googling hasn't turned up anything.

Does anyone by chance have this saved or know of a working mirror? Any tips on how to go about getting it? Is it by chance released in an 'onion' audio collection I'm unaware of? I just don't know the best way to go about finding this clip again.

Seeking explanation of odd lunar phenomena

malusmoriendumest — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 07:13:37 -0800

Can the Moon affect humans in specific ways? Is there any evidence that the rhythms of the Moon have an effect on anything smaller than the tides? I'm reasonably well-versed in astronomy and physics, and have been taught that the Moon exerts enough force on the Earth to control the tides, but not much more. Additionally, I'm an atheist, so I don't harbor any beliefs about spirituality, but it really does seem as though the rhythms of the Moon affect my health and general outlook, best at the Full Moon, worst at the New Moon, even when I'm completely unaware of the phase. I even came down with a serious illness on the day of the last lunar eclipse. I'm desperately trying to find a scientific explanation for this, but I simply can't find anything substantial, apart from scientific papers on the synchronicity of women's menstrual cycles with lunar cycles, when I am in fact male. Does anyone have an idea?

Does the moon orbit around the earth's equator?

woodblock100 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:52:37 -0800

We had a full moon a few days back, and it seemed - to me - to be floating very much higher in the sky than a full moon I watched last summer, which I think was at a much lower angle. But if the moon rotates around the equator, then wouldn't it always be the same height in the sky, for any particular position on earth? I understand the earth/sun relationship, and how the tilt of our axis causes the sun to be (apparently) higher and lower in the sky at different times of the year, but does the moon also follow a similar pattern?

I guess this is a no-brainer for astronomy buffs, but I'm having trouble looking this up on the web, not knowing the correct terminology. Can somebody shed some (moon)light on this for me?

How to deal with a stubborn friend

furtive — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:27:25 -0800

How do I deal with a friend who is adamant that the moon landings are faked? I've asked my friend that we avoid the topic of the moon landing in our regular conversation since we're obviously at odds on the subject, unfortunately it regularly creeps in when third parties are involved and quickly escalates to a serious degree of frustration.

I'm well aware of badastronomy.com and have seen the Kubrick mockumentary, but these have little impact on my friend. At this point I'm either looking for more succinct "stop and think" points, or points that might make him realize that consternation does not triumph logic and science. Otherwise, I'm looking for suggestions to just have him let the topic go.

For the record he is a good friend of mine but not necessarily an intellectual peer

only the moon has never abandoned me

nixerman — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:44:47 -0800

Poems about moon. Know any good ones? So. I'm looking for poems about moon. Particularly poems that worship and praise the moon. Particularly poems that sound suspiciously like prayers. Particularly poems for the full moon. Particularly poems that compare the moon to a goddess/woman. Songs would be acceptable but poems are preferred.

Global position system based on position of moon?

DirtyCreature — Wed, 30 May 2007 03:11:26 -0800

If I looked up at the sky some time at night, pointed to the moon and gave you the exact orientation of my arm (the two angles in the north/south and east/west directions) and told you the exact time of night and date it was, would you be able to tell my exact location in the world? If so, how?

Where to go to photograph full moon near Los Angeles on Saturday, March 3

willnot — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:25:10 -0800

Where should I go (near Los Angeles) and what should I do, to make a nice photograph of the full moon when it rises on Saturday, March 3rd? I'm thinking someplace in the desert, but I'm open to driving a bit of a ways. For a few months now, I've been wanting to make a nice image of the rising full moon. I marked March 3rd down in my calendar because it's on a Saturday, and so would allow me to travel and not have to worry about work.

This Ask Question has some tips and links for photographing the moon. I just saw that there will be a lunar eclipse that night. I'm not sure if or how that would impact some of the settings I might choose to use. If anybody knows, please let me know.

I have a Rebel XTi. The longest lens I have is a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Telephoto Zoom Lens. I also have a Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Standard Zoom Lens. I'm thinking the Sigma would be the best choice because it's longer, but I don't have very much experience with it yet. Should I think about renting an even longer lens, or should that work? If I should think about renting, from whom should I rent it?

Also, more than tactics, I'm looking for suggestions on setting. I was thinking something in the desert would be nice. I've never been into the desert (much less at night/dusk), so I'm not entirely sure where to go or what to do to minimize the chances that I might die. Someplace reasonably close to a road and help would be nice as long as the image can still be dramatic and interesting. I'll probably spend the afternoon shooting around before setting up for the moon rise, so someplace with some nice scenery would be good too. I'll probably be alone (unless some other budding MeFite photographers in the area would like to come along).

I'm dreaming of a moon shadow

pjern — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:27:45 -0800

Does anyone know what this phenomenon is called? It's not what I'd consider to be a moon dog or halo, but it sure was striking.

How can I figure out the moon's path across the sky?

yellowlightman — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:39:50 -0800

Is there a way I can figure out the moon's path across the night sky as viewed from a specific location on Earth on a given day? I'm planning an outdoor event during an upcoming full moon, and would like to know how visible the moon will be in the night sky. Thus far I've been able to find plenty of information about moon phases, but no way to figure out what the moon's path will be.

What would be the effects on the earth if the moon exploded?

tcobretti — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 22:28:47 -0800

What would be the effects on the earth if the moon exploded? Let's forget about the "how," and just focus on what would happen, both long term and short term.

This is for a cheesy scifi project I am working on, not just because I was idly wondering about it.

From the Moon to the Earth

np312 — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:33:30 -0800

Hypothetical from Moon-orbit to Earth-orbit question. I already know about free return trajectories, but what if something went wrong and your ship (currently orbiting the moon) didn't leave lunar orbit at the point it was supposed to? What might happen? Let's say for sake or argument that there was a technical problem which kept the spacecraft from exiting Lunar Orbit (to return to earth) at the specific time or location it was supposed to. Can some smart people help me out figure out several ways this mistake might affect the return trip home?

Is it something that could be rectified on the way back to earth, with no real issues? Or would it require landing somewhere different than where you had originally planned? Would it increase the risk of coming into earth orbit at a dangerous angle and/or speed?

Help me think of any and every worst case scenario for this scenario. Thanks!

To the moon

Astro Zombie — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:52:22 -0800

Help me with the hard science behind a sci fi idea. The idea is this: To save fuel, a tiny (I'm figuring small enough for a single inhabitant) spacecraft is launched from space (orbiting the earth) at the moon. It's not landing on the moon, simply passing it for observational purposes. To return home, the ship slingshots around the moon, so the only rocket fuel required would be the fuel to initialy get the ship started and a little for navigational needs.

Is this feasable? If so, how long do you reckon the trip would reasonably take?

custom card sleeves

craniac — Tue, 09 May 2006 13:46:08 -0800

I am looking for clear vinyl sleeves for trading cards that have the dimensions 120 mm x 70 mm (4.72" by 2.7559" inches). Ideally the sleeves would fit the cards fairly snugly. It's an odd size, and I don't believe that any generic card sleeves will work. Thanks for any suggestions. They are for a game called "Blue Moon" by Reiner Knizia. (This is a fishing expedition--I don't think the answer is googleable, I am just hoping that someone out there knows of a source, offhand.)