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How accurate are the shadows and masks?

accurate Masks Shadows
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How accurate are the shadows and masks?

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To draw the visibility and shadow masks, we’ve queried NASA JPL’s HORIZONS System for a variety of quantities. For example, to draw the mask representing the portion of the Moon visible from the Earth, we grab the lat/lon on the Moon that’s in direct line with the Earth at a given moment. Then the visible portion of the Moon is roughly the hemisphere centered at that point. Similarly, for the mask representing the illuminated portion of the Moon, we grab the lat/lon on the Moon in direct line with the Sun. We’ve downloaded these values for 2007 through 2010 at one minute intervals. These visualizations do not handle eclipses. We don’t include the effect of diurnal libration, which means we don’t take into account that people on opposite sides of the Earth see slightly different Moons (one can see a bit more around the left edge of the Moon, the other the right). The Sun illuminates a full hemisphere of the Moon. The Sun illuminates a bit more than a full hemisphere of the Earth. We ass

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