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# my stock response to anyone who supports the BNP is to say
'we all wake up to the same Sun each day'

I'm a cunt like that
(I helped save b3ta! Griffin Saver Something, something, 2006, something., Thu 15 Apr 2010, 12:58, archived)
# There's actually a Scottish edition of the Sun
So you're WRONG.
(I helped save b3ta! Tribs 🦇 ↓ dn ʎɐʍ sᴉɥʇ ↓🦇, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 12:59, archived)
# Only printed twice a year, yes?
/stereotypelols
(I helped save b3ta! J Peasemould Gruntfuttock Alpha Mike Foxtrot, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:02, archived)
# hahaha!
(I helped save b3ta! Griffin Saver Something, something, 2006, something., Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:03, archived)
# The wrold's first deep fried newspaper?
(I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:03, archived)
# wrapped in chips?
(I helped save b3ta! Griffin Saver Something, something, 2006, something., Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:06, archived)
# haha
(I helped save b3ta! Tom OBedlam I have control of a tank, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:24, archived)
# This is true.
But the trailer for some vapid limp film recently had one of the characters say "hold your thumb up to the moon, and it just covers it that's true wherever you are in the world"

Yes, moron. The moon has a circular orbit, not an elliptical one!
(I helped save b3ta! The Alchemist king of the needlessly complicated, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:03, archived)
# that's all the proof of god I need
(I helped save b3ta! Griffin Saver Something, something, 2006, something., Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:06, archived)
# there are no circular orbits in nature
/pointlessly pedantic blog. fuck knows what the ellipticity of the moon's orbit is but it's pretty damn small.


the moon does not orbit the earth; since the moon is so large relative to the earth compared to other moon/planet systems, they both orbit a point just inside the earth's crust. on elliptical orbits. /even more pointlessly pedantic blog.

depending on whether you believe pluto is a planet or not -- and frankly i couldn't give a shit what it's called -- it's a double-system. i don't know where the point is that pluto and charon co-orbit around but i suspect it's about a third of the way between the two of them. /pointlessly boring blog.

i'm quite looking forward to when new horizons reaches pluto. no reasons. /pointless comment blog.
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:17, archived)
#
Distance at perigee ~364 397 km
Distance at apogee ~406 731 km
(I helped save b3ta! Tribs 🦇 ↓ dn ʎɐʍ sᴉɥʇ ↓🦇, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:20, archived)
# That's a pretty small ellipticity
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:23, archived)
# Distance from Dustin Gee - 14 years
(I helped save b3ta! J Peasemould Gruntfuttock Alpha Mike Foxtrot, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:24, archived)
# hahahaha
(twattybanjo, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:36, archived)
# So the moon's orbit is nearly, but not quite circular?
In other, related, news : there are no spherical objects in nature. Nor are any of the platonic solids perfectly realised on this material plane...

From the point of view of an observer standing on the Earth, the Sun orbits us. Also, if your measurement device is a thumb, then the measurement error will be large enough to cover quite a lot of ellipticity! :)

What I can never quite understand is that the moon is rotating (I think) but we always see one face - tidally locked? Is that right?
(I helped save b3ta! The Alchemist king of the needlessly complicated, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:26, archived)
# Yep, very, very nearly circular
But not exactly. Same with planetary orbits around the sun. I think Venus' is the nearest to circular. Mercury's is totally whacky; back in the day they thought there was an extra planet (they called it, err, Icarus I think) inside Mercury's orbit. Turns out that that was one of hte first great proofs of general relativity because it gets Mercury's orbit almost exactly right while Newtonian gravity is just wrong.

Though I think you're right that if your measuring tool is a thumb at arm length then the errors are likely to be a bit more significant than a negligible ellipticity :) I *was* being pointlessly pedantic.

I'm ashamed to say I've never actually understood tidal forces. I know what they *are* (I can even work it out relativistically), I know where they come from and all that, but I actually don't understand how they've locked the moon's rotation to us but apparently it's true. I may figure that out at some point.
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:35, archived)
# Did you see that they've found some exoplanets that rotate in the opposite direction to their star?
I didn't know that this wasn't meant to happen, but apparently it wasn't (although now they know it can).
(I helped save b3ta! The Alchemist king of the needlessly complicated, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:41, archived)
# actually no i didn't hear a thing about that
if i get what you mean you mean the star's rotating clockwise and the planet is orbiting anticlockwise? that's really hard to explain. it's like you start off with everything on a big roundabout that then splits up. all the individual pieces are still going to orbit in the direction that it was spinning in. or if you mean that the planet itself is rotating opposite to the star... i didn't know anyone had got enough of a handle on a planet's atmosphere to tell which way it was rotating! that'd be fantstic.

any ideas of a link or anything?
(I helped save b3ta! boris the spider, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:45, archived)
# and everyone has the same sized thumb and the same length arms.
or something.
(I helped save b3ta! Barbarossa is not my real name, Thu 15 Apr 2010, 13:23, archived)