Local orbit radius
\[r=\frac{a(1-e^2)}{1+e\cos(\nu)}\]
Each tracked moon follows the same conic equation used for planetary orbits, with the parent planet as the focus.
Earth moon system🔭 Telescope picks →
Earth moons in motion.
Earth's single natural satellite controls tides, eclipse geometry, and long-term axial stability.
Earth selected
- parent distance
- Sun distance AU
- speed
- period
- position
1.00x Earth view- from Sun - - disk - - light
Moon simulator is initializing. Drag to rotate, wheel to zoom, right-drag to pan.
Gear guide
Recommended Telescope for Viewing the Moon
The Moon is the single best target for a first telescope — craters and mountain ranges snap into sharp detail along the terminator line, even from a light-polluted backyard.
Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ — our top pick for beginnersCelestron NexStar 5SE — GoTo mount finds craters and maria automaticallyCelestron Astro Fi 102 — portable scope for quick Moon nights
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Buyer tips
What matters for this system
- A Moon filter cuts glare during full phase so craters don't wash out.
- The terminator (day/night line) shows the most crater relief and shadow detail.
- Even 7x50 binoculars reveal major maria and large craters before you upgrade to a scope.
Simulation basis
Mean orbit model
Earth-relative mean lunar orbit plus an approximate heliocentric AU readout.
Controls
Use the model
Drag rotates the scene, wheel zooms, right-drag pans, and the Full screen button expands the simulator. The time-rate selector can run from realtime seconds to one year per second.
The selected moon panel reports parent-relative distance, approximate Sun distance in AU, orbital speed, period, and current model angle.
Tracked moons
Interactive orbit data
These bodies have individual orbit tracks and selectable readouts in the simulator.
| Moon | Study note | Radius | Mean parent distance | Eccentricity | Period | Mean speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moon | Synchronous ocean-shaping satellite with a mildly eccentric orbit and 5.145 degree inclination to the ecliptic. | 1,737.4 km | 384,400 km | 0.0549 | 27.321661 days | 1.022 km/s |
Catalog coverage
Recorded names and groups
Moon
Dense irregular and provisional moon populations are represented as catalog shell markers when compact per-moon orbital elements are not bundled into this static site. Counts are preserved so the system scale remains visible without overloading the browser.
Mathematical model
Natural-satellite orbital model
Moon-system simulations use local two-body approximations around the parent planet. The layout is computed from orbital periods, eccentricities, inclinations, and mean distances rather than from a reference image.
Period consistency
\[n=\frac{2\pi}{P}\]
Mean motion n is derived from orbital period P. The animation phase is therefore tied to the catalog period and remains internally consistent.
Inclined orbit plane
\[\mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{scene}}=R_x(i)\,\mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{orbit}}\]
Inclination i rotates the moon's local orbital plane. This proves the visible path is a transform of the mathematical orbit, not a freehand ring.
Verification standard: the rendered object must be reproducible from stated equations, catalog parameters, or explicit geometric transforms. Visual reference images may inform presentation only; they are not the source of orbital positions, field vectors, accretion-disk gradients, timing, or engineering layout.
Limitations: browser scenes may use bounded scale, compressed distances, simplified two-body dynamics, schematic transfer curves, or educational approximations where full numerical ephemerides, CFD, finite-element models, or general-relativistic ray tracing are outside the page scope. Those simplifications are part of the model contract, not hidden image-based construction.