[quote=“sandman”]There’s no dark side of the moon really. It’s all dark.
Taffy, that picture is absolutely hypnotic![/quote]
Great, isn’t it? I’m giving jdsmith another hour to claim it for his avatar, otherwise I’m keeping it for myself.
The rotation of the moon also helps keeps it cool and stops it going off. Which is important for any planetary body made of cheese.
[quote=“Edgar Allen”][quote=“sandman”]There’s no dark side of the moon really. It’s all dark.
Taffy, that picture is absolutely hypnotic![/quote]
Again, I think a little harsh, misunderstood maybe, artisticly (sp) inclined?, possibly autistic but totally dark? No, I think not. The Moon has shown a lot of promise in movement class. 
[/quote]
Yeah? Tell that to Roger Waters.
It depend which of the three moons you are talking about…
http://www.exo.net/~pauld/activities/astronomy/threemoons.html
:s
[quote=“Edgar Allen”][quote=“sandman”]There’s no dark side of the moon really. It’s all dark.
Taffy, that picture is absolutely hypnotic![/quote]
Again, I think a little harsh,[/quote]
Well, the moon is a harsh mistress.
[quote=“Taffy”][quote=“sandman”]There’s no dark side of the moon really. It’s all dark.
Taffy, that picture is absolutely hypnotic![/quote]
Great, isn’t it? I’m giving jdsmith another hour to claim it for his avatar, otherwise I’m keeping it for myself.[/quote]
Get yer own Moon.
Try Jupiter.
and thanks Taffy
you da man 
FAscinating, Captain.
I used to think it was spooky that the spin was exactly the same duration as its orbit. It freaked me out, was this by design of some higher intelligence ? 
until I found out why, and that it’s actually very common for moons in the solar system. Doesn’t freak me out any more.
Lot’s of things help you spin in the universe…
No it doesn’t spin, it rotates, see? This is supposed to be a wicked smart conversation, all references to cheese, green or otherwise, aside.
[quote]
Moon Statistics
Mass (kg) 7.349e+22
Mass (Earth = 1) 1.2298e-02
Equatorial radius (km) 1,737.4
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) 2.7241e-01
Mean density (gm/cm^3) 3.34
Mean distance from Earth (km) 384,400
Rotational periodcolor=red 27.32166
Orbital period (days) 27.32166[/color]
Average length of lunar day (days) 29.53059
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 1.03
Orbital eccentricity 0.0549
Tilt of axis (degrees) 1.5424
Orbital inclination (degrees) 5.1454
Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2) 1.62
Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec) 2.38
Visual geometric albedo 0.12
Magnitude (Vo) -12.74
Mean surface temperature (day) 107°C
Mean surface temperature (night) -153°C
Maximum surface temperature 123°C
Minimum surface temperature -233°C
solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm [/quote]
As Serial killer said, rotational period=orbital period; Ain’t no mystery, just a little bit o’ hist’ry.
The moon has more mysteries than you think.
weird. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
I love wikipedia.
[quote]The Moon is in synchronous rotation, meaning that it keeps nearly the same face turned toward Earth at all times (there is a small variation, called libration). The side of the Moon that faces Earth is called the near side, and the opposite side is called the far side. The far side is also sometimes called the “dark side”, which means “unknown and hidden”, and not “lacking light” as might seem to be implied by the name; in fact, the far side receives (on average) as much sunlight as the near side, but at opposite times. Spacecraft are cut off from direct radio communication with Earth when on the far side of the Moon due to line of sight. One distinguishing feature of the far side is its almost complete lack of maria (singular: mare), which are the dark albedo features.
[/quote]
solar eclipses are occultation of the sun. The moon occults objects (blocking our view of the sky).
I thought all planets and satellites spin. Stars spin. Our sun spins (poles different speed than equator producing electromagnetism). Venus has retrograde spin. binary star systems spin around each other (and may have tidal lock).
[quote]
In the case of the Moon, both its rotation and orbital period are just over 4 weeks. The effect is that no matter where you are on the Earth you always see the same face of the Moon. The entirety of the far side of the Moon was not seen until 1959, when photographs were transmitted from the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3.[/quote]
This is the most interesting. Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down, will it adopt a retrograde rotation like Venus? So, does that mean in the Jurassic, one day was actually 21 hours long?