File:Lunar libration with phase Oct 2007 450px.gif

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This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Tomruen. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Tomruen grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Technical

• Book: "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators, 4th edition", Jean Meeus, 1988, published by "Willmann-Bell, Inc"
  • Chapter 30 "Position of the Moon"

Source bitmap for projection from NRL's Clementine Spacecraft:

• Animation
  • 60 frames, 12 hour step.
  • Period used: 29.5 days
  • Animation began and ended near Apogee to minimize "jumping" when cycles back to the start.
  • New moon given an unreal 1% intensity "Ambient light" to show motion in all phases.
  • View assumed from the centre of the earth. (Geometrically impossible, but best demonstration of monthly libration caused by moon's motion versus the shorter daily libration that would be included from the surface of the earth.)

This version of the animation has been scaled down to 450×451 px to get it under the current MediaWiki size limit (width×height×frames ≤ 12.5 Mpx) for rescaling GIF animations.

• Moon