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Putting An Observatory On The Moon's 'Dark' Side

Posted by timothy on from the harsh-mistress-good-vantage dept.

wytcld writes: "CNN reports astronomers are pushing for a radio telescope on the 'dark side of the moon' (do real astronomers call it the 'dark side,' when it gets plenty of light?). The proposal by Yuki David Takahashi is amazing mostly because a guy just starting work on his Master's is managing major press for it. Still, a nice dream."

2 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Advantages? by The+Great+Wakka · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What would the advantages of this be? I can't think of any right off the top of my head. And wouldn't something in orbit around the moon also be in orbit around the Earth, so you'd have to compensate somehow? Keep in mind, also, that the moon rotates too, so you'd have to keep a lunosycronous (wow!) orbit.

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  2. Re:Question... by gilroy · · Score: 2, Redundant
    Blockquoth the poster:

    No, its called the dark side of the moon because it always faces away from the SUN

    No, it's called the "dark" side because an unfortunate linguistic misconception took root and is harder than weeds to pull out. The Moon rotates at exactly the same rate it revolves around the Earth. Tidal locking has accomplished this over billions of years. Now that the rates are equal, the Moon presents the same face to the Earth at all times.



    A "new" moon occurs when the Moon is closer to the Sun than the Earth. Then all the light falls on the far side and none on the side facing the Earth. For a "full" moon, the Moon is further than the Earth and all of the sunlight falls on the face nearer the Earth. But in both cases we're seeing the same face.


    See here for a good treatment.

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