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sci.astro.amateur |
On Jul 1, 10:31 pm, Dave Typinski <möb...@trapezium.net> wrote: > Doesn't seem likely, not with only two bodies. > Okay, add a few more bodies. > Take the Moon, for example. Its spin axis precesses about the normal > Why couldn't its spin axis also precess around the normal to the > Or does it, but to a very much smaller degree? > Is that what nutation is? A smaller and faster precession around some http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession Since nutation, described on another Wikipedia article, is largely John Savard
> Assuming an astronomical object is a member of a two-body system and To find out what precession can do, this Wikipedia article seems like
> has a spin axis and an orbital plane, can the object's spin axis
> precess around an axis /other/ than the normal to its orbital plane?
> to its orbital plane.
> ecliptic?
> other axis superposed on a somewhat larger and slower "main"
> precession?
a good one...
tied to the advance of the Moon's nodes, no doubt it is a response to
the Moon's gravity even as ordinary precession is a response to the
Sun's. It's probably simpler to combine the torques and get the
resultant precession than to add precessions, though.