19 solar years correspond to almost exactly 235 synodic lunar months or full cycles of moon phases. This so-called Metonic cycle synchronizes the solar with the lunar year, and it can be turned into a virtual online and even a physical moon phase calculator.

New paper out: https://www.thomasweibel.ch/data/uploads/text/the_moon_machine.pdf

#astronomy #mathematics #mechanics #history #moon #moonphase #fullmoon #antiquity #archaeology #sciencehistory #digitalhumanities #astrophysics #physics #diy #3dprint

A #Moon theme for you on last week's #threeForFriday #music #quiz - how did you get on with our three #lunar questions?
Did you get all three? Answers are here for you and don't forget the quiz archive is playable at https://mumubl.com/music-quiz/

#musicquiz #trivia #musictrivia #questions #musicquestions #popmaster #musicfans #musicgame #musicchallenge #quiztime @toploadofficial @rem @sinatra #fullMoon

Out and About – Night Sky

Here are a few images of the night sky that I have collected as of late 2024. Included are some Aurora shots, two different comets, a lunar eclipse, the Milky Way and some light pillars.

Northern Lights in September 2004, seen by the Monolith at Vigelandsparken in Oslo Some purples and greens behind a group of girls in the park A bit of the Milky Way in October of 2024, seen over cabins high above Voss in Norway
(we can’t see the galactic core here at this time of year) Looking the other way, I think I caught Pleiades near the top of the sky and Jupiter is the bright light On 15 October 2024, we went out to find Comen Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from our neighborhood in Oslo
(Clear skies and a fairly bright comet made it easy enough to find with help of a sky map on my phone — and my better half could see it by eye via binoculars) On 31 October 2025, we went to a nearby beach, Hvervenbukta, to attempt to find the Comet A6-Lemmon
(Cloudy skies and a much fainter comet made it much more difficult to “see”– can you find it?) On 7 September 2025, the lunar eclipse was just starting to end by the time the moon finally appeared over the hilly horizon of our neighborhood in Oslo Just a normal moon, but with a bit of earthshine along with that waxing crescent An almost full moon, caught in some tree branches On a cold night back in January, the ice crystals in the atmosphere reflected lights from the ground into light pillars
(I thought at first it was some sort of bizarre albino Aurora…silly me!) #AuroraBorealis #LightPillars #LunarEclipse #MilkyWay #Moon #NightSky #NorthernLights #Norway #Oslo #Photoblog #Photography
Astrobotic didn't just design rovers, they put an enormous effort into background research (e.g. chilling batteries in liquid nitrogen for lunar night survival). These maps show studies for polar missions, including power generation and traverse planning. This is only a glimpse at what they did, there is lots more. The 'sustained illumination route' is always in sunlight and they had other versions of it, farther from the pole.
#maps #moon #GLXP
The rover missions we just looked at were for the first Astrobotic mission, to win the Google Lunar X Prize, but the team had ambitions far beyond that. This table lists several versions of their plans. The missions are more overtly for science or engineering development. Some might become Discovery or other NASA missions, others might support Constellation. The dates given are expected launch dates. This is only just becoming feasible today.
#moon #GLXP
Esta mañana el #orto se vio entre nubes #moon 2️⃣➡️