In the 10 or so years that I have been observing I have always considered the moon to be a nuisance when I was chasing DSOs and only DSOs.
Now I think I might turn my attention to our nearest neighbour and make a study of the features on its surface and other aspects of the moon.
Synchronous rotation is where it all starts getting difficult for me. I cannot get my head around the concept that we only see one face of the moon because its rotation is in synch with the planet Earth's rotation. I can see that it would appear to rotate from 'background stars' perspective to use Steve Massey's (The Night Sky) words but it seems to me that its more like being stuck in gravitational pull like a hammer thrower at the busy end of the ball and the ball being the moon.
Is there someone 'out there'
who can explain synchronous rotation in a way that an old sailor can understand or if there is a suitable text?
And Steve mentions that the moon is in an eliptical orbit and I understand that and why we get perigee and apogee but I wonder if that's because (now don't fall about laughing!) when the moon gets 'behind' us, so to speak, and Earth rushes forward in its orbit around the sun, it needs to 'catch up' and then rush toward us when its in front of our orbit?
Chee! I'm not explaining this very well!
Am I like that?
Cheers!
Popeye