Orbital & Launch Mechanics Archives

One of the super-moon photos is a humorous hoax. Can you spot it? We knew that ATI’s instructors are world-class experts. They are the best in the business, averaging 25 to 35 years of experience, and are carefully selected for their ability to explain advanced technology in a readily understandable manner. We did not know that many are talented photographers. We challenged them to take some photographs of the November 13-14 super-moon. See our previous post and then the resulting photographs. https://aticourses.com/blog/index.php/2016/11/13/get-your-camera-ready-super-moon-november-13-14/ Tom Logsdon, who teaches Orbital & Launch Mechanics – Fundamentals provided us some of the orbits key parameters. Here are the best, most appropriate, average orbital parameters for Earth’s. perigee radius: 363,300 Km (for the super-moon it was 356,508 Km (or 221,524 miles) apogee radius: 405,400 Km Inclination to the ecliptic plane: 5.145 deg (the plane containing the Earth and the moon) orbital eccentricity: 0. 0549 (sometimes quoted as 5.49 percent) recession rate from the Earth: 3.8 cm/yr Siderial month: 27.3 days Synodic month: 29.5 days ( the sidereal month is the time it takes for the moon to make one 360 deg trip around the earth; the synodic month is the month we observe from the spinning earth…it involves a few extra degrees of travel beyond the sidereal month) Dr. Peter Zipfel Shalimar, Florida