I've always found it quite remarkable that we ALWAYS see the same side of the moon. Evidently the moon rotates at EXACTLY the same rate as it revolves around the earth. Heck, even if it was off by ONE SECOND every day, the face of the moon that we see would change some every few years. Especially since scientists claim that the moon is gradually moving away from the earth and that it's orbit increases by about 4 centimeters per year.
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The fact that we ALWAYS [seem to] see the same side of the moon is so remarkable that it can't be just by coincidence.
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What we actually see is mostly the same side but it varies slightly, as shown below.
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Even if it was off by ONE SECOND in a century we would eventually see a changing face of the moon.
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The distance from earth to moon is constantly changing since the moon's orbit is not circular, so astronomers have to calculate an AVERAGE distance based on very accurate measurements and expectations.
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Since it is "astronomically" unlikely that the moon's face would always appear the same from earth and we would never see the "far side" (not dark side) of the moon, it has been believed by speculation that the moon was formed by material that gathered in orbit around the earth after a large object impacted the earth long ago. But this is merely speculation. It is based on the idea that the material that could have erupted from that impact would have had the same rotational velocity that the earth had at the moment of impact, and that consequently that material as it collected out in space retained that initial rotational momentum as it formed into the moon over many years, due to the law of conservation of motion. So says the theory. But we don't really have any corroborating evidence (so far) to confirm this theory. Certainly there is nothing in Scripture, for one, that mentions any of this.
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happenby said:
The moon rolls across the sky like a wheel. The dark spots on the moon or even the lit crescent shape of the merest slice of the moon can prove this with an overnight observation. Even a cheap digital camera can do the job if you are able to capture the moon with it so that specific moon characteristics are distinguishable in the pictures taken. Take one shot of the moon on a clear night from the same position every two hours until the moon sets later that evening or in early morning hours. The succession of pictures will show the moon rolls, like a wheel, rotating approximately 180 degrees from the moment of moonrise to the moment of moonset proving that the east/west "geosynchronous" rotation of the moon is a fallacy.
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All wrong.
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When you make astronomical observations you can't just stand there and follow the moving object by turning your head from left to right, or by rotating your feet on the ground in a clockwise direction. When you do that you are changing your point of reference without any reason to do so except that it's convenient for your lazy method of observation.
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(http://en.es-static.us/upl/2014/06/Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif)
The libration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration)s of the Moon over a single lunar month.
Also visible is the slight variation in the Moon's visual size from Earth.
Views of the moon over one month, demonstrating librations in latitude and longitude.
These rocking and wobbling motions as seen from Earth enable us
to see 59% of the moon’s surface over time. Image via Tomruen (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif)
.
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To get a series of photos like that, extreme care must be taken to be sure the camera is properly oriented, and since the moon is moving with respect to the earth, the axis of rotation has to be established and that must be then used in the turning of the camera over time, every day for a month. If you look closely you can see tiny jitters in the image, but they are very minor considering the challenge presented to the photographer.
.
The image above shows a time-lapse movie of one lunar month (27.3 days) and it thus shows that we can actually see a small amount of the "far side" of the moon's surface due to this wobble, or libration. Consequently, from earth we get to see about 59% of the moon's surface over time, but not all at one time. At one instant we can see slightly less than 50%, since any point of observation at a distance from any spherical object cannot see completely half of the object. The viewpoint would have to be infinity for half the object to be viewable at once, and then you would have the problem of it being too small, that is, infinitely small. No telescope can magnify a subject when it is infinitely small. Ironically, it would appear to not be there at all.
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http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-much-of-the-moon-can-we-see-from-earth-lunar-libration
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIB_leg75Q
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If you want a roller-coaster ride of conflicting messages, go to the youtube page with that video on it and read through the 1700 comments below it.
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Quote (from linked earthsky.org (http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-much-of-the-moon-can-we-see-from-earth-lunar-libration) page):
Why can’t we see the moon’s farside? Some people mistakenly think the moon doesn’t rotate on its axis because the same side of the moon always faces Earth. But the moon does rotate. The video above shows why you’d see all sides of the moon if the moon didn’t rotate on its axis. It’s best to watch the video from start to finish.
.
So the moon does rotate. Why, then, do we see only one face of the moon? One side of the moon always faces Earth because of what’s called synchronous rotation (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/synchronous-rotation). That is, the moon rotates, or spins on its axis, in the same length of time it takes to orbit Earth. Any moon whose rotational period equals its orbital period is said to exhibit synchronous rotation, a characteristic shared by many moons of our solar system.
.
Because of synchronous rotation or tidal locking (https://www.spaceanswers.com/deep-space/what-is-tidal-locking/), our moon rotates on its axis in the same period that it revolves around the Earth: 27.32 days.
.
For that reason, our moon always has one side facing Earth, which we call the moon’s nearside. Meanwhile, the opposite side remains hidden from us, so we refer to it as the moon’s farside.
.
(https://s14-eu5.ixquick.com/wikioimage/b0132728b01812bd48188409e60ca2d9.gif)
(Satellite orbit keeping the satellite at a fixed
longitude above the equator)
.
This poses no problem for geocentrism BTW because for the sake of illustration the earth is here shown rotating so you can see the satellite rotating the same way and rate as the earth. The illustration could instead have the earth and satellite standing still and the stars, planets and sun shown to be moving by from left to right in the background, and it would be the same thing being shown only from a different point of reference. This reference, shown, is a MOVING point of reference whereas the latter one ("instead") would be a STATIONARY point of reference.
.
When you think you see the moon "rolling like a wheel" across the sky, it's your head that's doing the "rolling." If you would consistently view the moon from a position of tilting your head backward so that the north star is directly overhead and when you turn your head you are turning it with the north star in the same position overhead, then the moon would not appear to be "rolling" across the sky. So it's a matter of your choice of reference direction.
.
Conversely, if you would point your face downward toward the ground with the moon's course overhead and only roll your eyes to watch the moon's progress instead of turning your head, the moon would appear to "roll" twice as fast as it does when you simply face the moon standing upright as you have been previously, in the post above.
.
If you look at a jet airplane flying straight across the sky from left to right, it too appears to "roll like a wheel" if you don't make any correction for the earth's curvature. If you could stand directly below the jet and only move your head up and backwards in the plane of the jet's course, the jet would not appear to roll at all. But if you view it from an angle to one side of its course at a distance from the line directly below the jet, by turning from left to right it's your changing direction of view that makes the jet appear to be "rolling" clockwise. It is in fact your own rotation on the ground, as you turn your feet on the ground to follow the jet or turn your head from left to right, that is making that appear to happen to the jet.
.
What you see when you just look up at the moon without any reference to the north star is an illusion, but flat-earthers are happy to rely on illusion to pretend their imaginary flat-earthism is real, when it isn't real at all.
.
.
The fact that we ALWAYS [seem to] see the same side of the moon is so remarkable that it can't be just by coincidence.
.
What we actually see is mostly the same side but it varies slightly, as shown below.
.
Even if it was off by ONE SECOND in a century we would eventually see a changing face of the moon.
.
The distance from earth to moon is constantly changing since the moon's orbit is not circular, so astronomers have to calculate an AVERAGE distance based on very accurate measurements and expectations.
.
Since it is "astronomically" unlikely that the moon's face would always appear the same from earth and we would never see the "far side" (not dark side) of the moon, it has been believed by speculation that the moon was formed by material that gathered in orbit around the earth after a large object impacted the earth long ago. But this is merely speculation. It is based on the idea that the material that could have erupted from that impact would have had the same rotational velocity that the earth had at the moment of impact, and that consequently that material as it collected out in space retained that initial rotational momentum as it formed into the moon over many years, due to the law of conservation of motion. So says the theory. But we don't really have any corroborating evidence (so far) to confirm this theory. Certainly there is nothing in Scripture, for one, that mentions any of this.
.
happenby said:.
All wrong.
.
When you make astronomical observations you can't just stand there and follow the moving object by turning your head from left to right, or by rotating your feet on the ground in a clockwise direction. When you do that you are changing your point of reference without any reason to do so except that it's convenient for your lazy method of observation.
.
(http://en.es-static.us/upl/2014/06/Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif)
The libration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration)s of the Moon over a single lunar month.
Also visible is the slight variation in the Moon's visual size from Earth.
Views of the moon over one month, demonstrating librations in latitude and longitude.
These rocking and wobbling motions as seen from Earth enable us
to see 59% of the moon’s surface over time. Image via Tomruen (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif)
.
.
To get a series of photos like that, extreme care must be taken to be sure the camera is properly oriented, and since the moon is moving with respect to the earth, the axis of rotation has to be established and that must be then used in the turning of the camera over time, every day for a month. If you look closely you can see tiny jitters in the image, but they are very minor considering the challenge presented to the photographer.
.
The image above shows a time-lapse movie of one lunar month (27.3 days) and it thus shows that we can actually see a small amount of the "far side" of the moon's surface due to this wobble, or libration. Consequently, from earth we get to see about 59% of the moon's surface over time, but not all at one time. At one instant we can see slightly less than 50%, since any point of observation at a distance from any spherical object cannot see completely half of the object. The viewpoint would have to be infinity for half the object to be viewable at once, and then you would have the problem of it being too small, that is, infinitely small. No telescope can magnify a subject when it is infinitely small. Ironically, it would appear to not be there at all.
.
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-much-of-the-moon-can-we-see-from-earth-lunar-libration
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIB_leg75Q
.
If you want a roller-coaster ride of conflicting messages, go to the youtube page with that video on it and read through the 1700 comments below it.
.
Quote (from linked earthsky.org (http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-much-of-the-moon-can-we-see-from-earth-lunar-libration) page):
Why can’t we see the moon’s farside? Some people mistakenly think the moon doesn’t rotate on its axis because the same side of the moon always faces Earth. But the moon does rotate. The video above shows why you’d see all sides of the moon if the moon didn’t rotate on its axis. It’s best to watch the video from start to finish.
.
So the moon does rotate. Why, then, do we see only one face of the moon? One side of the moon always faces Earth because of what’s called synchronous rotation (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/synchronous-rotation). That is, the moon rotates, or spins on its axis, in the same length of time it takes to orbit Earth. Any moon whose rotational period equals its orbital period is said to exhibit synchronous rotation, a characteristic shared by many moons of our solar system.
.
Because of synchronous rotation or tidal locking (https://www.spaceanswers.com/deep-space/what-is-tidal-locking/), our moon rotates on its axis in the same period that it revolves around the Earth: 27.32 days.
.
For that reason, our moon always has one side facing Earth, which we call the moon’s nearside. Meanwhile, the opposite side remains hidden from us, so we refer to it as the moon’s farside.
.
(https://s14-eu5.ixquick.com/wikioimage/b0132728b01812bd48188409e60ca2d9.gif)
(Satellite orbit keeping the satellite at a fixed
longitude above the equator)
.
This poses no problem for geocentrism BTW because for the sake of illustration the earth is here shown rotating so you can see the satellite rotating the same way and rate as the earth. The illustration could instead have the earth and satellite standing still and the stars, planets and sun shown to be moving by from left to right in the background, and it would be the same thing being shown only from a different point of reference. This reference, shown, is a MOVING point of reference whereas the latter one ("instead") would be a STATIONARY point of reference.
.
When you think you see the moon "rolling like a wheel" across the sky, it's your head that's doing the "rolling." If you would consistently view the moon from a position of tilting your head backward so that the north star is directly overhead and when you turn your head you are turning it with the north star in the same position overhead, then the moon would not appear to be "rolling" across the sky. So it's a matter of your choice of reference direction.
.
Conversely, if you would point your face downward toward the ground with the moon's course overhead and only roll your eyes to watch the moon's progress instead of turning your head, the moon would appear to "roll" twice as fast as it does when you simply face the moon standing upright as you have been previously, in the post above.
.
If you look at a jet airplane flying straight across the sky from left to right, it too appears to "roll like a wheel" if you don't make any correction for the earth's curvature. If you could stand directly below the jet and only move your head up and backwards in the plane of the jet's course, the jet would not appear to roll at all. But if you view it from an angle to one side of its course at a distance from the line directly below the jet, by turning from left to right it's your changing direction of view that makes the jet appear to be "rolling" clockwise. It is in fact your own rotation on the ground, as you turn your feet on the ground to follow the jet or turn your head from left to right, that is making that appear to happen to the jet.
.
What you see when you just look up at the moon without any reference to the north star is an illusion, but flat-earthers are happy to rely on illusion to pretend their imaginary flat-earthism is real, when it isn't real at all.
I have never seen a jet fly across the sky left to right or right to left that it appeared to "roll like a wheel". What I observed with the moon roll is empirical proof the moon cannot be geostationary.