Physics And Astronomy Of The Moon

Physics and Astronomy of the Moon focuses on the application of principles of physics in the study of the moon, including perturbations, equations, light scattering, and photometry. The selection first offers information on the motion of the moon in space and libration of the moon. Topics include Hill's equations of motion, non-solar perturbations, improved lunar ephemeris, optical and physical libration of the moon, and adjustment of heliometric observations of the moon's libration. The text then elaborates on the dynamics of the earth-moon system, photometry of the moon, and polarization of moonlight. The publication explains lunar eclipses and the topography of the moon. Discussions focus on the photometric model of eclipses, brightness of the solar elementary ring, effects of light scattering, photometry of lunar eclipses, and determination of altitudes on the moon. The text then evaluates the interpretation of lunar craters, luminescence of the lunar surface, and the origin and history of the moon. The selection is a dependable reference for physicists and astronomers interested in the application of principles of physics in the study of the moon.

Traces the history of the exploration of the moon from ancient times to the present and discusses the makeup of the moon's surface

After several decades spent in astronomical semi-obscurity, the Moon has of late suddenly emerged as an object of considerable interest to students of astronomy as well as of other branches of natural science and technology; and the reasons for this are indeed of historical significance. For the Moon has now been destined to be the first celestial body outside the confines of our own planet to be reconnoitered at a close range by means of spacecraft built and sent out by human hand for this purpose. At the time of writing, not less than ten such spacecraft of American as well as Rus sian origin landed already on different parts of the lunar surface; and some of these provided remarkable records of its detail structure to a spatial resolution increased thousandfold over that attained so far from our ground-based facilities. A renewed interest in our satellite, stemming from this source, on the part of the students of many branches of science and technology has also underlined the need for presenting the gist of our present knowledge in this field in the form that could serve as an introduction to the study of the Moon not only for astronomers, but also for serious students from other branches of science or technology.

A favourable reception of the first edition of this book - due no doubt to the nature of its subject - which went out of print in 2 years, gave its author a welcome oppor tunity to update at present its contents. This was all the more necessary, as seldom in the annals of science has our knowledge of the physics and astronomy of the Moon made greater progress than during this time. The real heroes of this advance have, of course, been the spacecraft - 33 of which have now been sent out since 1959 to reconnoiter our satellite at a close range. The hard-landers among them just about delivered their message by the time when the first edition of this book went to the press; but it was the soft-landers and orbiters, which followed in their wake between 1966-67, that became really the principal contributors to lunar research. By now that it may be both timely and their programmes have likewise been completed; so opportune to take stock of the present state of our subject now - on the eve of the next stage of lunar exploration by manned landings on the surface of our satellit- which can be expected to take place in the very near future. * The aim of the second edition of this book will be to provide the requisite infor mation, brought up to date in an organized manner.

In 'Paving the Way for Apollo 11' David Harland explains the lure of the Moon to classical philosophers, astronomers, and geologists, and how NASA set out to investigate the Moon in preparation for a manned lunar landing mission. It focuses particularly on the Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor missions.

The discovery of a gradual acceleration in the moon’s mean motion by Edmond Halley in the last decade of the seventeenth century led to a revival of interest in reports of astronomical observations from antiquity. These observations provided the only means to study the moon’s ‘secular acceleration’, as this newly-discovered acceleration became known. This book contains the first detailed study of the use of ancient and medieval astronomical observations in order to investigate the moon’s secular acceleration from its discovery by Halley to the establishment of the magnitude of the acceleration by Richard Dunthorne, Tobias Mayer and Jérôme Lalande in the 1740s and 1750s. Making extensive use of previously unstudied manuscripts, this work shows how different astronomers used the same small body of preserved ancient observations in different ways in their work on the secular acceleration. In addition, this work looks at the wider context of the study of the moon’s secular acceleration, including its use in debates of biblical chronology, whether the heavens were made up of æther, and the use of astronomy in determining geographical longitude. It also discusses wider issues of the perceptions and knowledge of ancient and medieval astronomy in the early-modern period. This book will be of interest to historians of astronomy, astronomers and historians of the ancient world.

Proceedings of Symposium No. 47 organized by the IAU held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, March 22-26, 1971