Tonight is the 13th and final full moon of 2012. It is also an example of how a lunar month and a calendar month don't exactly match up. The Moon orbits the Earth, returning to the same place in the sky once every 29.5 days, but our months have 28, 29, 30, or 31 days in them. Therefore some years have twelve full moons, and other have thirteen. And speaking of thirteen, this video illustrates every full moon of 2013. Quite hypnotically, I might add.
The central image shows the phase of the Moon at any given moment, while the clock runs forward in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and months in the lower right. The upper left locates the Moon in its orbit around the Earth, with the Sun in a fixed direction. The wobble you see as the phases of the Moon change is the result of the inclination of the Moon's axis with respect to its orbit around the Earth. It's no different from how the tilt of Earth's axis with respect to its orbit around the Sun is responsible for our seasons.
In my opinion, the coolest part of this video is the line across the middle of the screen. The number line on the right side (28 - 32) indicates the ellipticity of the Moon's orbit in units of Earth's diameter (i.e., 28 = 28 x 12,756.2 km). The Moon's distance from Earth oscillates between 28-32 Earth diameters (or roughly 360,000 km - 408,000 km). This variation is what allows for everyone's favorite lunar phenomena: the Supermoon. A Supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon when the Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit. Watch the video closely and you can see the Moon growing and shrinking in size as it moves towards and away from Earth. Pretty cool, huh?
You can download your own copy and check up on the current Moon stats here.
Geek you in 2013! @Summer_Ash
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Love astronomy.
I have NASA on my favorites list. I love the stuff there and the pics from Hubble.
Western peoples used to observe 13 months to the year (the ancient zodiac has 13 symbols), but we changed to 12 so we have 3 months per season.
Imagine if we still observed 13 months. Four weeks (28 days) per month, with one extra day either tagged to the last month or standing alone as a special day (Happy New Year!). Leap day would be also added at the end of the year, as we do now (ever wonder why the tenth month is named 'Eighth month'?)
If New Year's Day and Leap Day were treated as special days, the first of each month would be a Sunday, every month every year. The second a Monday, etc.
The full moon was also in Cancer, just fyi. Anybody else have funky dreams early this morning? They sort of stuck with me all day, too.
Cool stuff and I thought the Moon has looked bigger at times! Because it was really closer. I didn't know that it shifted on its axis as it does. But they could have used rock& roll instead of classical music I think Pink Floyd/Dark Side of the Moon or Ozzy/Bark at the Moon.
http://now.msn.com/seeing-eye-cat-helps-blind-dog
RIP General Schwartzkopf. Thank you for serving.
We missed much of the moon's grandeur. When it formed, current thinking is that the moon was 17 times closer. Due to the visual size increasing at the inverse square of distance, it appeared 289 times larger, filling the sky substantially more than at present. Of course, it took a while to develop organisms capable of perceiving the moon. By that late date it was only about 3 times larger than its present time.
Yet the Moon can seem much closer to us today. Kennedy put it on our horizon and it became within reach. The Horizon moon is an interesting phenomenon. Many think it appears bigger when near the horizon due to the optics of the earth's atmosphere magnifying it, but the science says that the optics actually makes it a bit smaller. So our minds are telling us the Horizon moon appears closer than it is when it is juxtaposed with familiar reachable objects. When it is high in the sky with no visual cues from familiar objects, it seems removed and of insignificant proximity. Kant noted that though the astronomer knows that the moon is no larger, he cannot prevent his eyes from telling him that it is much smaller when he does not see it on his horizon. He considered this because it is an important metaphor.
It is the same mode the population of the world thinks about climate change policy. No Kennedy to place it on the national horizon of possibility, so it is unreachable. Corrolary is how Rahm Emmanuel would preplay the politics of a measure- how he declared financial reform out of reach and therefore the President had to be persuaded to remove it from his vision of the horizon of possibilities. Just a few years how distant did resolution of LGBT issues appear? Just 10 years ago how distant did the possibility of having a non white president appear?
Pelosi's legislative wisdom is that one must not pre play politics. One must put the ideas in play and fight for them- requiring the forces in opposition to demonstrate whether they do or do not have the imagined strength they do. We must allow the forces to play out in the real world because often the world can be a surprising place where possibilities are more within reach than we imagine.
If only we keep them on our horizon.
Rachel needs to think about the Moon.
Codigo Cube RPG Fantasy Trivia: Kickstarter Project
Four Clowns Game And Toy Company is pleased to announce the launch of
their newest game Codigo Cube RPG Fantasy Trivia.
The game is being launched as a Kickstarter project and the company has
set a modest goal of raising $3,000 in order to bring this game to life.
Backers are rewarded with first edition copies of the game as well as
having a in writing some of the questions that will become part of the
finished game.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4clowns/codigo-cube-rpg-fantasy-trivia-game
Codigo Cube RPG Fantasy Trivia is part of the multi-award winning Codigo
Cube Trivia series of games the company produces. Codigo Cube Trivia is
the world's first hybrid between tabletop and Smartphone gaming.
Roll. Scan. Answer. Roll.
The game is played with one or more players. Players take turns rolling
the cube which is embedded with QR Codes. Using a single Smartphone, the
players scan the codes and then answer the multiple choice questions that
appear on their screen. Answer correctly and the player re-rolls, answer
wrong and it is the next player's turn. The object it to be the first
player to answer one question correctly from all sides of the cube.
Codigo Cube RPG Fantasy Trivia is focused on just the RPG world. The game
is multi-genre and contains a variety of questions in such diverse
categories as:
• Basic RPG Rules
• Non Playing Characters and Monsters
• Dungeon Master Rules
• Powers and abilities
• Basic Game Scenarios
If successfully funded the game will launch in June and the company plans
to gain distribution at various worldwide locations.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4clowns/codigo-cube-rpg-fantasy-trivia-game
[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHOqMmYoYRA[/VIDEO]