Thanks to a nice visualization of NASA, you can anticipate what the Moon will look like each day of the year 2022. For example, find out what phase it will be in on your birthday.
You wanna know what will look like on the moon on your birthday in 2022? On your cat’s birthday? Or any other day? NASA allows you to find out in a video, broadcast on Twitter the first day of the year.
There are actually two versions of this video: the first shows what the Moon will look like when viewed from the northern hemisphere (where mainland France is located), while the second is valid for observers from the southern hemisphere.
In addition to the appearance of the visible face of the star, the visualization shows graphics, indicating the distance of the object or its position in relation to our planet.
Observe the lunar liberation: what is it?
Looking at these images, you might get the impression that you see the Moon flickering or swaying. This slow oscillation of the satellite, as seen from Earth, is called libration. This phenomenon is notably linked to the fact that the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is not perfectly circular: the distance of the Moon from the Earth changes, and its speed on its orbit varies. On the other hand, the rotation of the Moon on its own axis (on itself) does not change.
We thus observe two different apparent movements of libration:
- The libration in longitude, which sometimes allows you to see a little more of the west or east side of the Moon (a bit as if the Moon were saying “no” with its head),
- Libration in latitude, which sometimes allows you to see a little more of the northern or southern hemisphere of the Moon (as if she was saying “yes” while nodding her head).
In addition, you will also find that the Moon gives the impression of rocking back and forth, like a metronome. This apparent movement is largely due to the tilt of the Earth (our planet is tilted 23.5 degrees on its axis of rotation, which is also what is at the origin of the seasons).
Finally, you may have noticed another change in the appearance of the Moon, in this video: it sometimes seems to get slightly bigger, and other times slightly smaller. Again, this has to do with our perspective on Earth, because obviously the Moon is not really getting bigger or smaller. This phenomenon, sometimes wrongly described as a “super moon” or a “micro moon” when it coincides with the full Moon, is explained by the fact that the Moon passes at its perigee (at about 363,300 kilometers Earth) or at its peak (about 405,500 kilometers from us).
If you want to see directly what the moon will look like on a specific day in 2022, without looking for it in the video, you can use what site (in English). Enter the date of your choice and click on the image for even more details.