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I'm pretty much trying to figure out, whether an inclined orbital plane rotates with its parent or not.

To make my problem understandable an equivalent question would be, whether the longitude of ascending node of a moon's orbital plane changes over the course of a year, when the reference plane is the ecliptic plane and the reference direction is a "fixed" star, far away in the ecliptic plane.

The question assumes, that the moon is rotating around a planet, which in turn rotates around a star. By ecliptic plane I mean the plane given by the orbit of the planet around the star and by year I mean one sidereal period of the planet. There are no other celestial bodies involved.

I'm taking this picture as a reference for the orbital parameters:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orbit1.svg

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    $\begingroup$ Hi, I added the image directly to your post, as many site visitors dislike going offsite. Best of luck with your question. The edit may be approved shortly. $\endgroup$
    – user154420
    Jul 7, 2017 at 0:22
  • $\begingroup$ If you are happy with an answer, and accept it, you can also upvote it. $\endgroup$
    – user154420
    Jul 7, 2017 at 22:32
  • $\begingroup$ I did, but it does not count towards the visible score yet :) $\endgroup$
    – Tschebbischeff
    Jul 11, 2017 at 12:39

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Taking from the Wikipedia article on Lunar nodes:

The plane of the lunar orbit precesses in space and hence the lunar nodes precess around the ecliptic, completing a revolution (called a draconic or nodal period) in 6798.3835 days or 18.612958 years.

So yes, the nodes rotate.

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  • $\begingroup$ Ah, I indeed did not specify it, but I am assuming a three-body-system, including the sun. Editing my question in that regard. $\endgroup$
    – Tschebbischeff
    Jul 7, 2017 at 8:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Tschebbischeff Edited. $\endgroup$
    – probably_someone
    Jul 7, 2017 at 9:33
  • $\begingroup$ The term of precession ultimately led me to the correct answer, it may be that my question was still confusing. I did not mean our moon and our earth but a theoretic three-body-system similar to ours. So while the nodes certainly rotate due to precession, this wasn't what I meant. Instead I wanted to know if the orbital plane of the moon from the question changes significantly during one year, depending on the position of the planet. The answer in this sense is no, and very well shown in this youtube video, which I found thanks to you: youtu.be/RB9svuAASSw?t=957 $\endgroup$
    – Tschebbischeff
    Jul 7, 2017 at 10:34

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