First of all, this is not a photo gallery because that would require me to be able to leave the earth to photograph it in it′s entirety. That is out of the question for me, well, at least at this time for I have yet to acquire a jammer that has booster rockets.

So, why, what is the purpose for this page? Methinks that the earth is absolutely one of the most predictable creations in the universe and thus, I have been doing research about the intricacies of this part of Creation. Too, what I have been finding out is amazing but also so perplexing to me, that, at times I am totally befuddled.

"Please, let me explain," or, as Tommy Michel, the greatest story teller that I have ever known, would say to me, "Let me tell you a story about that."

Years ago, on the night of 15 April 2014, shortly before midnight, I watched the moon go into a total lunar eclipse and during that amazing celestial event, the moon passed entirely into the shadow of the earth. I had for the entirety of my life up until that moment, believed that the moon circled the earth from east to west, which means, if this was the case, and if the moon was observed in space from a location above the Earth′s north pole, then the moon would proceed to travel in a clockwise direction around the Earth.

This clockwise direction is what I believed caused the moon to thus travel from east to west each time I would watch it from my life sojourn here upon this Earth.

However, what I saw that Tuesday night while watching the moon go into the earth′s shadow totally confused me, because the moon, from my perspective here standing on the Earth, entered the shadow from the right, (the west side) and traveled in an eastward direction through the shadow and later it departed out of the shadow on the left side of the Earth′s shadow (the east side). This left me in a moment of total head-scratching as to what had just happened!

I continued to ask myself: How did that happen? The moon can not be traveling from the west in an eastward direction, can it? Total befuddlement had a strong hold on me until I was able to research what happened that night. What did I find out?

From the perspective as if looking down from a location in outer space directly above the north pole, the earth rotates counter-clockwise. This fact was already in my knowledge base as this is what I understood causes the Sun to appear to travel from east to west each and every day. However, what about the Moon? What my research led me to learn was different from what I had previously believed.

From that same perspective, (in space above the Earth′s north pole) the moon has always and will always travel the same path around the earth. That path like the Earth has the direction of counter-clockwise, which in astronomy, is referred to as a prograde orbit. The Moon′s orbital rotation is prograde just like the Earth′s orbit rotation. Also, both the Moon and the Earth have an axis rotation in the same prograde direction like the Sun′s axial rotation.

Thus, my research has shown me that as the moon travels prograde around the Earth, it would be moving eastward across the sky, despite what earthbound observers see. So, what would account for why the observers on the Earth would see what would looks like the moon traveling in a westward direction.

The moon orbits the earth in this prograde direction for it to complete one revolution about the Earth, it takes about four weeks, (or more precisely, 27.321661 days), which time is referred to as a sidereal month.

This also means that the moon will orbits the earth a little more than thirteen times each year. (365.2422 days ÷ 27.321661 days = 13.368228 months)

Therefore, since the moon is traveling prograde (or eastward around the Earth), again, I asked myself Why, what makes the moon appear to travel in a retrograde direction? The answer is that the earth′s axial rotates travels at a much faster speed than does the moon′s rotation around the earth. The Earth completes one axial rotation in about twenty-four house, much sooner than the Moon completes one orbital rotation, (or 27.3 days) around the Earth.

This difference in travel speed between the Earth and the Moon is what causes the Moon to appear, (from the perspective of Earthbound viewers,) to be moving retrograde, or going in a westward direction (clockwise from a view above the north pole) when it is actually moving eastward (counter clockwise from a view above the north pole). And that is why, on the 15 May 2014, during the lunar eclipse, I saw the moon enter the Earth′s shadow in an eastward direction. This appearance from an earthbound viewer, to the see Moon move from east to west is in fact an illusion, one in the science of astronomy which is called apparent retrograde motion.

Too, this is why that whenever I had viewed the moon from my position here on Earth, I assumed that the moon moved from moonrise up from the eastern horizon, westward to the moonset on the western horizon. In fact, I totally Assumed Wrongly! Instead, the moon orbits the earth from west to east, as do the vast majority of manmade satellites including the International Space Station.

Does the Moon Rotate on it′s Axis? Yes, the Moon does rotate on it′s axis and this axial rotation is known as synchronous rotation, because the tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around the earth.

This type of rotation causes the same side of the moon to always face the earth, even though there is some variability because the orbit of the moon is not perfectly circular.

Why is there all this discussion about Moon Stuff in the Earth′s Story Page?

Well, when I learned that I did not know it all when it comes to the moon, methinks, I might just not know as much about the earth as I think I do. So, my understanding about the earth and all of it′s idiosyncrasies has thus become the topic of much research. What have I found out? A few things thus far.

There are three critical ways that the position and path of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun is affected due to the gravitational pulls from the other celestial objects in the solar system.

which the position of the earth in space is changed with relation to its orbit around the sun in

These three celestial effects upon the Earth are also know as the following:

All three, eccentricity, tilt, and precession form an interplay on how the earth is effected in many ways and all three effects could have caused changes in the intensity of past summers and winters to the amount that ice ages have come and gone or could do so in the future.

The following sections below will discuss what these celestial effects are and lastly, this page will discuss the Permanence of the Earth.

The orbit of the earth gradually stretches from nearly circular to and elliptical shape and back again in a cycle of approximately 100,000 years.

During this cycle, the distance between earth and the sun varies by as much as 11.35 million miles.

Currently, earth′s orbit is an ellipse with the current orbit-eccentricity of 0.0167, and since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is close to the center of the Sun.

In orbit eccentricity, a value of 0 (zero) is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 (.00001 to .99999) form an elliptic orbit. The orbit eccentricity of 1 is a parabolic escape orbit, and a value of greater than 1 is a hyperbolic departure orbit.

The planet's distance from the Sun varies as it orbits. In fact, the Earth is never the same distance from the Sun from day to day but it averages 93,000,000.0 miles or about 150,000,000 km.

When the Earth is closest to the Sun, it is said to be at perihelion. This occurs around January 3rd each year, when the Earth is at a distance of about 91,402,505.6 million miles (or 147,098,074 km.)

When it is at its farthest distance from the Sun, Earth is said to be at aphelion. This happens around July 4th where the Earth reaches a distance of about 94,509,129.8 miles (or 152,097,701 km.)

And those of you in the northern hemisphere will probably notice that "warm" or "cold" weather does not coincide with how close or far the Earth is to the Sun. Instead, the sole determination of the extremes temperatures is the axial tilt, which will be discuss below.

The axis of the earth with relation to the plane of the planets, (this plane of the planets is called the ecliptic), is not perpendicular, rather the axis is currently tilted about 23.5 degrees from the ecliptic. The ecliptic is also know as the plane, on which is the orbit of all the planets around the sun. However, this axis tilt is not constant but, like the orbit-eccentricity above, changes, albeit very slowly.

Over the course of nearly 41,000 years, the angle of this tilt varies between 21.5 and 24.5 degrees. I first learned about this when, late in the year 2009, I was driving down through Mexico headed for Michoacan. While traveling near the tropic of Cancer, I see a sign stating: Tropic of Cancer-2005. Then a short distance later, I see another one stating: Tropic of Cancer-2006 and this continued for each of the years 2007 and 2008 and finally I see one stating: Current Tropic of Cancer-2009.

This change in the location of the Tropic of Cancer indicated to me that the angle of the tilt of the earth is changing. I had previously understood that the Tropic of Cancer was the degree of latitude north of the equator equal to the tilt of the earth′s axis, and wrongly thought that the angle was fixed, but that experience helped me to learn that the tilt of the earth is gradually changing.

That periodicity of the change in tilt of the axis of the Earth is nearly 41,000 years. Or otherwise stated, this period, or time span is the amount of time it takes for the tilt of the earth to go through one complete rotation from 21.5 degrees out to the maximum of 24.5 degrees and then back again to 21.5 degrees.

In astronomy, axial tilt is more commonly known as the angle of obliquity. Obliquity is the angle between a celestial object′s rotational axis and the same celestial object′s orbital axis. This could also be described as the angle between a celestial object′s equatorial plane and orbital plane.

If a celestial object has an obliquity of 0 degrees, then, the equatorial plane of the celestial object and the orbital plane of the same object are equal with no variation. In other words, the rotational axis of the object will be perpendicular to the orbital plane. Simply put, both the equator of the celestial object and the object that it orbits are both on the table top. (If viewed as if the objects are placed on a table. See the Table Top illustration.)

However, the obliquity of the Earth oscillates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees on a 41,000-year cycle. Based on a continuously updated formula, Earth′s mean obliquity is currently 23.4355 ° and decreasing.

Interesting, when the tilt of the earth is nearer to the larger tilt, (24.5°) the summer and winter seasons are more extreme, so therefore, the weather extremes are decreasing as well.

Also, it is because of this tilt, that the solar radiation striking any point on earth fluctuates during each yearly orbit of the earth around the sun, and it is this tilt which produces the four seasons.

When ever the tilt is becoming closer to the greater amount of degrees, (approaching 24.5 degrees) the summers are the hottest and the winters are the coldest. However, currently, the tilt of the earth is currently getting smaller, (approaching the minimum tilt of 21.5 degrees.)

Axial precession is the slow, circular wobbling of Earth′s axis of rotation, caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on the equatorial bulge of Earth. Thus, the axis of the Earth appears to inscribe a circle upon the celestial sphere once every 26,000 years. ¹

Currently, the position and shape of the earth′s orbit around the sun places the earth closest to the sun during the northern hemisphere′s winter and farthest away during summer. The combination tends to make winters mild and summers cool, which favors ice sheet growth. However, 11,000 year ago, the opposite was the case setting the events in motion to cause the ice sheets to melt and decay in the northern hemisphere.

It is because of the axial precession movement, the distance between the earth and the sun changeS slowly and vary from season to season.

Historically, the Earth′s Axil Precession has been called the Precession of the Equinoxes because this axial precession caused the equinoxes to move westward along the ecliptic relative to the fixed star.

Even while the shape of the earth′s orbit and the tilt of the earth′s axis are changing through time, the 26.000 year wobble is yet another celestial effect that has a interplay in the predictability of the movement of the earth.

One thing about all these celestial effects is that no matter how they effect the earth nor how much it is being changed by these three idiosyncrasies, this in no way means that the creator has lost control of his creation. He is in control and will always be in control, despite what happens.

The creator has the Desire as well as the Power to keep it the safe home that He has promised humans in His Word the Bible. Where does he make this promise? We should look to the Bible for the answer to this question. Please check in your copy of the Bible to make sure the following things recorded below are true. When you find them in your Bible, you will have the hope that God will preserve alive all those who love and obey Him.

There is so much more than what you read above. Not only does God promise in His Word the Bible, all of the above conditions but he also provides all humans with relief from the anxieties and trouble that confront us today.

No matter what we face today, be it family problems, debt, failing health, the loss of loved ones in death, or for that matter anything, we can can gain peace and confidence from the countless promises that God has made to all of mankind.

For information about how you can learn more about the above, please see the section that discusses A People for God Today.