Astro-image of the day: Lunar libration

[mckitterick]

This is so cool, something I've never seen before. You read about phenomena like libration (the Moon's wobble as it orbits the Earth), but this little .gif movie is new to me. This is a time-lapse of the phases of the Moon during one full orbit. Cool!

Click the image to see the story.

And no, it's not an optical illusion: The Moon does appear to get bigger and smaller during the month due to its elliptical orbit (not perfectly circular).

Best,
Chris