This animation of our view of the moon for the rest of 2012 -- broken down by hour -- was created by NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio and helpfully annotated by Bad Astronomer Phil Plait.

The moon's libration -- that tilting and tipping back and forth -- is caused by its tilted, elliptical orbit. And, for the record, this is how the moon would look if you were at the center of the earth with your head pointing toward the North Pole.

If you want to check the phase and libration of the moon during any given hour of 2012, you can use NASA's handy applet.

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