Recently i have wondered about how the moon and sun affect gravity here on earth. I was wondering wether the force of gravity would change during night or day due to the position of the sun and the moon and their gravitational pulls. But just as I sat down to work this out (being the cool 16 year old I am) I also remembered that the sun and moon would also pull on the earth. so the question is would the pull the on the earth be the same as that on you and therefore cancel out any effects or do you infact become magically (or marginally) lighter at night or day due to this affect?

Is it possible to reliably define the times (for a specific location on earth) when the tidal gravity from astronomical objects (moon, sun etc.) are at their weakest & strongest?

I have considered using sea & ocean tide times, but these factor in unwanted variables, such as ocean currents and coastal water flows, which would invalidate the results somewhat.

I am attempting to define whether any noticeable effects occur from the moon on athletic performance, but need specific times with which to test and compare (hence the strongest & weakest times are my targets).

Is there a reliable method to calculate the times of strongest and weakest gravitational pull of the moon upon objects at a specific location on earth, in effect a high and low tide? We considered using tide times, but they factor in variables such as ocean currents and coastal flows, which would adversly affect our results. Is there a formula that can give us a good answer?

Is there a formula to give the times when the lunar gravitational effects are strongest and weakest for a location on earth? We considered the tide times, but they factor in variables such as coastal flows and ocean currents, which would adversly alter the calculations

Ok, so I had this notion the other day about terraforming the moon and a friend I discussed this with suggested I should ask you if this is possible. So here goes:

One of the great scientific questions these days seems to be based around how we can get a human colony proper outside of the confines of planet earth. This achievement will help to safe guard the future of humanity against a great cataclismic event on Earth whipping us all out.

So I thought, the moon seems a logical starting place - nice and near if not for any other reason. I starting thinking how could we get an atmosphere on the moon. Some reports state that some water has been found on the moon but I figure we cant go banking on that. I wondered where else could we get a huge mass of water from? Not earth, at least not with current technologies. Then it hit me... there are plenty of huge masses of water flying round the solarsystem that could be used. One such mass is Halley's Comet of which its next perihelion is predicted to be approx 28 July 2061 (plenty of time to iron out the uncertainties of this theory).

So now that we have dispensed with the background, I can ask my questions:

Assuming that we successfully adjusted the orbit of Halley's Comet so that it did hit the moon, and assuming that the resulting impact did generate enough energy to turn the entire water content to Gas releasing the Oxygen and CO2 that would be required to create an atmosphere (perhaps the impact could also generate some spin on the moon to give it days and nights), would the moon be capable of holding this atmosphere within its own magnetic field at a high enough pressure for humans to survive without the need for breathing / pressure equiptment?

My questions isnt so much about whether Halley's Comet could be used to achieve this but more so as to whether the moon would be capable of supporting the resulting atmosphere that is created or whether we could modify the moon in some way so it could.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on my theory.

Ok, so I had this notion the other day about terraforming the moon and a friend I discussed this with suggested I should ask you if this is possible. So here goes:

One of the great scientific questions these days seems to be based around how we can get a human colony proper outside of the confines of planet earth. This achievement will help to safe guard the future of humanity against a great cataclismic event on Earth whipping us all out.

So I thought, the moon seems a logical starting place - nice and near if not for any other reason. I starting thinking how could we get an atmosphere on the moon. Some reports state that some water has been found on the moon but I figure we cant go banking on that. I wondered where else could we get a huge mass of water from? Not earth, at least not with current technologies. Then it hit me... there are plenty of huge masses of water flying round the solarsystem that could be used. One such mass is Halley's Comet of which its next perihelion is predicted to be approx 28 July 2061 (plenty of time to iron out the uncertainties of this theory).

So now that we have dispensed with the background, I can ask my questions:

Assuming that we successfully adjusted the orbit of Halley's Comet so that it did hit the moon, and assuming that the resulting impact did generate enough energy to turn the entire water content to Gas releasing the Oxygen and CO2 that would be required to create an atmosphere (perhaps the impact could also generate some spin on the moon to give it days and nights), would the moon be capable of holding this atmosphere within its own magnetic field at a high enough pressure for humans to survive without the need for breathing / pressure equiptment?

My questions isnt so much about whether Halley's Comet could be used to achieve this but more so as to whether the moon would be capable of supporting the resulting atmosphere that is created or whether we could modify the moon in some way so it could.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on my theory.

As we all know Sappho named the moon in her poetry as silvery, depite it being made of cheese as evidenced by its creamy color. Although Baron von Muncchausen went there he failed to answer the qestion I wonder. Asteroids were always red in the computer shot-em up games I played as a kid.

I never knew why? The BBC answered this here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8468999.stm

but not why if broken regolith is red, why is the moon not red?

On the first night of heavy snow - tues 5th Jan - it was cloudy but the sky was  a very light sepia tone all night - enough to see clearly by. It was much more light than on the subsequent nights which have been partially cloudy with a visible moon. On these nights there was the same amount of snow cover, but less cloud. 

On the sepia night it was lighter than if there had been a full moon.