How Anyone Can Measure The Distance To The Moon Using Cameras

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Scott Manley

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Published on July 22, 2018 4:44:54 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTtce3rJxhc

Duration: 7:14

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It's entirely possible to measure the distance to the moon using regular everyday cameras. Observers stationed a long distance apart can work in pairs to take images of the moon and surrounding stars. These photos will show slight differences in the location of the moon on the sky, and knowing the baseline the distance to the moon can be calculated.

It's even possible to approximate the distance to the moon just by a single observer able to take high resolution images of the moon and measuring the change in observed size of the disc.

Also, while I don't demo this technique it's possible to look at how the motion of the moon across the sky speeds up and slows down due to the rotation of the observer with the earth, but that requires a lot more data points.

Measuring the baseline actually turns out to be the most complicated chunk of math here, I might make a separate video on that, but I need spreadsheets first.