Talk:Orbit of the Moon

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Astronomy: Moon / Solar System Low‑importance

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Apparent trajectory of the Moon

An image caption in section History of observations and measurement now reads, "The apparent trajectory of the Moon in the sky seen from Earth each night is like a wide ellipse, ... ". Isn't it very close to a great circle on the celestial sphere, at most 1°1′32″ off? The difference is too small to be observed without instrumentation, so why call it an ellipse? --Lambiam 13:49, 28 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

draconic year

In effect, this means that the "tropical year" on the Moon is only 347 days long. This is called the draconic year or eclipse year.

Is that so? It's not obvious to me that the precession of the Moon's rotation axis should match that of its orbital plane. —Tamfang (talk) 18:07, 10 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]