Deflating / Desinflando

Mosaic of 8 photos of the Moon, taken Celestron C6-N, 20mm. eyepiece, ISO50, 1/50" of exposure, F/4,8 aperture, and 3x optical zoom. One day after full moon, she is deflating.

ENGLISH
Third astrophotographic session. Not yet I dominate the focus, and the shadows and spots of colour are caused by the manual assembly of the mosaic.

***
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. The average center-to-center distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 miles), which is about 30 times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon has a diameter of 3,474 kilometres (2,159 miles) — slightly more than a quarter that of the Earth. This means that the volume of the Moon is only 1/50th that of Earth. Its gravitational pull is about a 1/6th of Earth's. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days, and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases that repeat every 29.5 days. The gravitational attraction, and the centrifugal forces generated by the rotation of the Moon and Earth around a common axis, the barycentre, is largely responsible for the tides on Earth. The energy dissipated in generating tides is directly responsible for the reduction in potential energy in the Moon-Earth orbit around the barycentre, resulting in a 3.8 cm yearly increase in the distance between the two bodies. The Moon will continue to move slowly away from the Earth until the tidal effects between the two are no longer of significance, whereupon the Moon's orbit will stabilize.

The Moon is the only celestial body that humans have travelled to and landed on. The first artificial object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first artificial object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The US Apollo program has achieved the first (and only) manned missions to date, resulting in six landings between 1969 and 1972. Human exploration of the Moon ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although as of 2007, several countries have announced plans to send either people or robotic spacecraft to the Moon. On 4 December 2006, NASA outlined plans for a permanent base on the Moon as part of preparation for a voyage to Mars. Construction of the base is scheduled to take about five years, with the first preliminary missions by 2020.

The Moon has no formal English name, although it is occasionally called Luna (Latin for "moon") to distinguish it from the generic "moon" (referring to any of the various natural satellites of other planets). Its astronomical symbol is a crescent (☽). The related adjective for the Moon is lunar (from the Latin root), or the adjectival prefix seleno- or suffix -selene (as in the Greek deity Selene). The word moon is Old English from older Germanic origins, with links back to Latin mensis, and back further to the PIE root of me- as in measure (time), with reminders of its importance in measuring time in words derived from it like Monday, month and menstrual.

More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

----------------------------

CASTELLANO
Tercera sesión astrofotográfica. Aún no domino el enfoque, y las sombras y manchas de colores están causados por el montaje manual del mosaico.

***
La Luna es el único satélite natural de la Tierra. Es el astro más cercano (la distancia media entre el centro de la Tierra y la Luna es de 384.400 km) y el mejor conocido. Su diámetro es de menos de un tercio del terrestre (3.476 km), su superficie es una decimocuarta parte (37.700.000 km²), y su volumen alrededor de una quincuagésima parte (21.860.000 km³).

Más info: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna