August 31, Blue Moon

Image from Butter Funk
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Next August 31, 2008 will be the second full Moon in a calendar month, a so called "Blue Moon".

Related articles:

• Universe Today - Blue Moon This Week by Tammy Plotner
• Wikipedia - Blue Moon 
• Earth Sky - The next Blue Moon is August 31, 2012

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong! Was The First Man On The Moon

Image from Guardian

Neil Armstrong is dead at age 82. He became the first man who walk on the Moon with Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on July 20, 1969, in the Apollo 11 mission, when he says "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.".

 Image from International Business Times

Neil Armstrong - First Moon Landing 1969 - YouTube

Related Articles :
- Commondreams : First Man on Moon Neil Armstrong Dead at 82
- Universe Today - Watch Neil Armstrong’s First Steps on the Moon
- NASA - Space Medal of Honor
- Neatorama - R.I.P. Neil Armstrong
- Daily Telegraph - First man on moon, Neil Armstrong, dies at age 82 
- io9 - The best way to honor Neil Armstrong

There's Helium In Moon's Atmosphere

 Image credit: UniverseToday.com

The discovery that the Moon has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of helium was made by LACE (Lunar Atmosphere Composition Experiment) a mass spectrometer used by the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, and these days the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the discovery.

It is not yet clear whether the helium is originate from inside the Moon or from an external source like the solar wind or is just "captured" by the Lunar gravity, but in anyway this is another discovery about the Earth natural satellite confirmed in the last days.

An article published at NBCNEWS explain the report with more details. You can read the entire article HERE.

Moon Master: An Easy Quiz for Lunatics

Image credit: Midnight Martian

If you are "Lunatic" and you also like quiz, I just found this nice and easy quiz Moon on Space.com. In about 5 min you can check out your level of knowledge about the Moon.

Here you go: Moon Master: An Easy Quiz for Lunatics
 

July 20, 1969: We Are On The Fucking Moon

Ice on the Moon

Due to their position, craters adjacent to the lunar south pole cannot receive sunlight and they are permanently shadowed. So, the content of such craters were an enigma for scientists. Using the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter data now is possible to determine their structure as never before. Laser scan reveal the presence of ice in the Shackleton crater, an impact crater of 21 km in diameter and 4.2 km deep, located at the Lunar south pole.                               

Image by NASA

  

While the laser scan performed by the LRO could indicate the presence of water in the polar craters, the current evidence suggests that the crater could be mined for deposits of hydrogen in water form, a chemical element that is expensive to deliver from the Earth. Another project involve this crater as the location for a large infrared telescope placement. The low temperature of the crater floor makes it perfect for infrared observations. And also a NASA Outpost Project, involves the construction of the base along the perimeter of the Shackleton crater.

Read the full article by Bill Steigerwald at the NASA website

Link: Researchers Estimate Ice Content of Crater at Moon's South Pole

Video about Shackleton Crater published on YouTube by MIT.

Video on YouTube

Related Articles: 

• Wikipedia - Shackleton Crater
• Space.com - Huge Moon Crater's Water Ice Supply Revealed

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Full Moon On June 4, 2012 - Strawberry Moon & Vesak Moon

Without a doubt the full Moon is the most dramatic sights in the night sky.

 Image from Spiritual Astrology Reading

For millennia the full Moon fascinates us as many lovers well know and draw inspiration to artists and poets and humans have used the movement of the moon to kept track of the changing seasons and set schedules for harvesting and planting.

Ancient cultures over the world have given distinctive names to the recurring full Moons, so different full moon names can be found among the Native American, Celtic, Old English, Buddhist and Chinese to name a few, based on the behavior of the weather, plants and animals during that month and their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

So the next full Moon on June 4 having many names around the world.

Strawberry Moon was the name gived by the Native American Algonquian tribes because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during this month and now this is the most popular name of June full Moon in North America and used also by people of the United Kindgom countries although the most popular name in English is Flower Moon.

 Image from First People US

Other names are Rose Moon, Honey Moon, Planting Moon and Hot Moon, reflecting a specific feature of the nature in June.

Full Moon days are sacred according to Buddhist tradition and called Uposatha (Buddhist Sabbath) in Pali, which is a lingua franca in the Buddhist community.

The Vesak Moon date varies according to the various calendars used in different Buddhist tradition. So many Buddhists who not already have celebrated the Vesak in the May, will celebrate in the June full Moon.

The Vesak (or Vesākha, in Pali language from Sanskrit but also Buddha Purnima, Vaishaka) is a holy day for all Buddhists communities.

Also informally called the Buddha’s Birthday the Vesak day celebrate the birth, enlightenment and dead of the Buddha.

Image from Samui Art Gallery

Some Buddhist countries have the traditional Vesak relate holy day in other months of the year, although most of the Vesak Moon falls in the 5th or 6th lunar month. So the holy day was celebrated on May 5 and 6, in countries such Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia and it will be celebrate on June 4 in countries such Thailand where the people know the same day as “Visakha Bucha Day” (“Visakha Puja Day”) and it means the worship of the Buddha on the full Moon day of the sixth lunar month.

Image from Ministry of Interior -Thailand

The celebration in Thailand provides abstinence from alcoholic drinks and all kinds of immoral acts (Rub Sil), practice of renunciation and mental discipline observing the Eight Precepts wearing white clothes, going to temples from Buddhists rituals (Tum Boon) and offering food to the monks (Tuk Bard), and attending the Candle Light Procession (Vien Tien) in the evening of the Vesak Day.

Related Links:

• Visakha Bucha Day – Tourism Authority of Thailand
• Visakhapuja Day – Dhammathai Org
• Inspirations & Lessons In Life : The Ultimate Remembrance on Wesak Day – Part 1 – 2 – 3

Article published at Koh Samui, Koh Phangan & Full Moon Party - Read the full article, HERE.

In 1901, You Could Pay 50 Cents To Ride An Airship To The Moon

Nice article about how the people seems the Moon at beginning of the twenty century, published at io9

Link

The passengers wait eagerly in the ornate lobby of the enormous spaceport. Soon, a signal indicates that their spaceship is ready for boarding. As they wait, special displays instruct them about how their spaceship functions and what to expect once they leave Earth's atmosphere. Aboard the giant spacecraft — as luxuriously appointed as any yacht — they are soon on their way to a vacation on the Moon.

No, this isn't a vision of the future of space tourism. It's what happened in 1901, when people could pay a princely half dollar for a ticket to ride into space.

Read the full article by Ron Miller, HERE.

Electric Moon Jolts The Solar Wind

An interesting article published at PhysOrg explains about the Moon influence on the solar wind.

Image from Wikipedia

(Phys.org) -- With the Moon as the most prominent object in the night sky and a major source of an invisible pull that creates ocean tides, many ancient cultures thought it could also affect our health or state of mind – the word “lunacy” has its origin in this belief. Now, a powerful combination of spacecraft and computer simulations is revealing that the Moon does indeed have a far-reaching, invisible influence – not on us, but on the Sun, or more specifically, the solar wind.

Read the full article at PhysOrg, HERE.

The solar wind produces splendid auroras, visible on the Earth.
Watch this amazing time-lapse video from ISS that showing how the aurora is seen from space.

YouTube - Time lapse aurora from ISS, HD

One more stunning video at Wired shows incredible aurora.

Read the full article Time-Lapse Video: Radiant Airglow and Auroras From Space

 on Wired which explains how the aurora happens.

 

Moonrise As Seen From The Space Station

At the International Space Station, the astronaut Don Pettit set the camera from the airlock of the Russian station segment and produce an amazing time lapse video of the Moon rising.
During the video you can see the astronaut in the space station's cupola observation window.

NASA ISS Earth Space Video

Video from YouTube : Moon Over the Space Station | NASA ISS Earth Space Video

June 4, 2012 Partial Lunar Eclipse

The next June 4, 2012, will take place a partial lunar eclipse when the Earth will be in the middle by the Sun and the Moon. Because Sun, Earth and Moon will be not in perfect line-up, only a partial umbral shadow of the Earth will cover about a third of the Moon surface, creating a reddish hue shadow.

Partial Lunar eclipse, September 7, 2006. Image published at Deep-Sky Watch, HERE.

The event will start at 8:48 UTC and ends at 13:18 UTC, and although the eclipse happens simultaneously worldwide, observers in eastern Asia will be watching it after sunset on June 4 and at the same time people in the Western Americas will be viewing it before sunrise.

It will be visible in the far western part of North America and far southern South America, where the whole dark umbral eclipse will be visible for the observers starting at the moonset at 12:06 UTC. The eastern side of America will completly miss the phenomenon.

The event will be better visible over Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii when

the Moon will be one-third covered by the Earth's umbral shadow al maximum eclipse (11:03 UTC) and the observers will see the entire event from start to finish.

Eastern Asia observers in Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand will see the eclipse at Moonrise

until the end at 13:18 UTC.

Partial Lunar Eclipse - Dec 21, 2010 - Image taken by James Kevin Ty in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. Published at Astrophoto Gallery. The next partial lunar eclipse on June 4, will be very similar.

How do calculate my local time from Universal Time?
Get the Time Zone Interactive Map by TimeAndDate.

Twelve Lunar eclipse images - Published at Astronomy Picture of the Day, HERE.

Follow the partial lunar eclipse On Live at Slooh Space Camera .

  Related Articles:
- June 2012 lunar eclipse - Published at Wikipedia.
- Partial lunar eclipse on June 4, 2012 - Published at timeanddate.com.
- The Moon is also Partial to an Eclipse! - By Jenny Winder, published at Universe Today.
- When is the next lunar eclipse? - Published at EarthSky.

Shoot The Moon

One More Amazing Video About The Last Anular Solar Eclipse

I don't get enough! I love the Moon and any astro event, so I got excited one more time when I found this amazing video product by Theodore Judah, an american astro-photographer who set his camera at Sundial Bridge, Redding, California.
He published his amazing work on May 22, 2012, after a perfect post-production, using as sound track the beautiful and appropriate song by Peter Adams, "Shoot The Moon"!

Have fun watching this video.



Theodore Judah YouTube channel, HERE
Theodore Judah (Ted Judah) Facebook page, HERE

Japan And Russia Reveal Plan To Build Permanent Bases On The Noon

The United States still has to choose between building a moon base and sending astronauts to asteroid

While NASA administrator Charles Bolden was in Florida to watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, representatives of space agencies from Russia, India, Japan, and Canada were at the Global Space Exploration Conference to talk about their future plans. One of the biggest topics they discussed was the moon: Japan and Russia revealed plans to establish bases on our planet's satellite.

Read the full article by Mariella Moon, published at Tecca, HERE.

Private Moon Project

The universe may not revolve around you, but this beautiful series of photographs shows you what it might be like to have your own personal moon.

Article published at Buzz Feed By TcBlackLabel, HERE.

This Is A Nice Rendering - Wallpaper

Yesterday many people post this photo in social networks stating it is a photo of the last solar eclipse (May 20th/21th, 2012) from space... but it is not.
Today again many people still sharing the photo believing what is not and many threads still discussing if the image is real or not.
Now I finally found the original source.
This image is a fake. It is a very good product, outcome by a 38h rendering made with Terragen 2 in November 2009, published at Deviant Art.
Here you go: http://fav.me/d2dvgyj

Annular Eclipse Stunning Photo! - Wallpaper

Published on February 24, 2012 at HDW - High Definition Wallpapers - HERE

Annular Solar Eclipse Images - May 20, 2012

A montage of the May 20, 2012 annular eclipse as seen near Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Japan between 7:08 to 7:38 a.m. local time. Credit: Kim Nilsson - Published at Flickr  - HERE

Related article:

Eclipse Images from Around the World by Nancy Atkinson on May 21, 2012 at Universe Today.

 

Watch Live: Annular Solar Eclipse Creates Ring of Fire

Published on Wired, by Adam Mann

Slooh Space Camera Live

An annular solar eclipse will be visible May 20 from eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and much of the North American West Coast.

Read the full article here.

Asteroid 2012 KA To Buzz Earth On May 17

On the heels of a bus-sized asteroid that passed harmlessly between Earth and the orbit of the Moon on May 13, another asteroid between 4.5 and 10 meters (14-33 feet) wide will buzz by at about the same distance on May 17, 2012. Asteroid 2012 KA was discovered just today (May 16), and is projected to make its closest approach about 0.0015 AU, or 224,397 kilometers (134,933 miles, .6 lunar distances) from Earth’s surface at 19:43 UTC on Thursday. The asteroid was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Observatory, and at the time of this writing, is the only observatory that has made any observations.

Read the full article by Nancy Atkinson, published at Universe Today .

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Link to NASA about 2012 KA: JPL Small-Body Database Browser
-


NEOs May-July 2012 & 2012 KA

Moon Throw, Pillow And Cushion

How about take a nap on the impact crater-scarred surface of the Moon?

DQtrs - Moonscape II - Thw-1632 

What a wonderful gift for a Moon Lover!

The moonscape throw was featured in the April edition of Architectural Digest Russia and now is available at DQtrs.

 There's also a Moon-pillow and a Moon floor cushion.

DQtrs - Moonscape 2 - HVN-1482

 

bltd - Enormous Moon Floor Cushion

I really think I'm going to have one of this!

Supermoon Images From Around The World

Thanks to one more nice article by Nancy Atkinson we can take a look at some amazing images of the last Supermoon.

San Souci lighthouse, Dominican Republic. Credit: Goku Abreu.

 Aguilas, Murcia Spain. Credit: Tapani Isomäki

 Credit: Omer Sidat.

Brick Landing, North Carolina USA. Credit: Tavi Greiner.

Marin Headlands, San Francisco, California. Credit: Ted Judah

Berkeley, California. Credit: Ira Serkes.

Read the full article by Nancy Atkinson for more amazing shots at Universe Today, HERE.

Full Moon Wallpaper #3

FreeHDwallpapers

Supermoon Is Also Called "Pink Moon"

What about the Pink Moon?

According with the article:  The Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon by Laura, published at Love L.A.M.B., the Supermoon is also called Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon and Fish Moon.


Here the Pink Moon song by Nick Drake:

Supermoon in Tauranga, New Zealand, May 5, 2012

A moon 30% brighter than usual due to proximity to earth rising above our city from the East creating an orange radial flare in the clouds.
Marama is the local Maori name for moon. Shot by Jonathan Stewart on Panasonic Lumix FZ35 in 720p hd.

Published at YouTube, on May 6, 2012 by afterschooldigital

Supermoon in Mansfield, Georgia, USA, May 5, 2012

A time lapse of the "Super Moon" rising over Jon Wood astronomy field at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Management Area near Mansfield, GA.

Published at YouTube on May 6, 2012 by clatu4225

Supermoon in Pune, Maharashtra, India on May 6, 2012

Moonrise and Moonset of Supermoon on May 6, 2012



Published at YouTube on May 6, 2012 by LakshmiRavishankar

Supermoon in Ontario, Canada, May 5, 2012

Published at YouTube on May 6, 2012 by MarkDisero

Supermoon in Voronezh, Russia, May 5, 2012

The most gorgeous video I have found...



Author: Ilya Dolls
Photos of the the Moon here: Фотограф [Куколев Илья] Воронеж

Published at YouTube on May 6, 2012 by MrVelentain

Full Moon In Scorpio, May 5, 2012. The Moon Reach Its Perigee Right Now!

Full Moon in Scorpio - RealAstrologers

Wesak Moon - Sathya Sai Baba

Wesak Buddhist Festival - Earth Heal Blog

Shakti Wesak Moon - Phoenix's Blog For the Seekers

Beltane Celebration - The Baltimore Sun - The Dark Room

Altair for Beltane - Deviant Art -  By reandeanna

Beltane Celebration - National Geographic

The Super Moon of May 5, 2012

Why Does The Moon Look So Huge On The Horizon?

I love illusions, and I love astronomy. So what could be better than combining the two?
If you’ve ever seen the Moon rising over the horizon, looking so fat and looming that you felt like you could fall right into it, then you’ve been a victim of the famous Moon Illusion. And it is an illusion, a pervasive and persuasive one.
So, how does this thing work? Ah, step right up.
Read the full article

Article by Phil Plait at Discover Magazine

Dropping a dime on the Moon

So, tonight is the so-called Supermoon, when the Moon happens to be full at the same time it’s at perigee, the point in its orbit closest to the Earth. This makes it somewhat larger and brighter than normal, and that’s getting a lot of attention in the press. I pointed out a few days ago that in reality, you almost certainly won’t notice the difference between this full Moon and any other, mostly because the difference is small, and our eyes and brain are terrible at judging things like that without something to directly compare it to.
I was thinking about this last night as I watched the almost-full Moon rise in the east (which, I’ll add, ironically looked huge due to the Moon Illusion!), and thought of something that might help illustrate this last point.

Read the full article at Discover Magazine.

How Far Away is the Moon? (The Scale of the Universe)

The time an Apollo 16 astronaut swore about farting on the moon

We already know that farting astronauts are serious business, but the fact is that even the best-trained moonwalker can't stop themselves from passing gas. Apollo 16 astronaut John Young didn't just fart prolifically while on the moon, he colorfully described his flatulence during a mission debriefing

I'm not sure whether that's an audio recording of the exchange between Young and NASA Mission Control or whether it's a reenactment based on the mission transcript, but Young did indeed toss off a "fuck" or two when describing his OJ-based indigestion to his crewmate Charlie Duke. (And after all the trouble NASA went through to keep astronauts from swearing over their microphones.)

Read the full article here. By Lauren Davis published at io9 .

Full Moon Wallpaper #2

Thanks to HD Wallpapernet

Moon Craters 3-D!

Nice 3D watching of Moon Craters, thanks to this images in an Nancy Atkinson's article published at Universe Today!

I hope you have a big screen!

Article by Nancy Atkinson
Published on Universe Today
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Full Moon Wallpaper #1

Thanks to YouWall

The bigger and shining Moon will be celebrated at the Full Moon Party tomorrow!
Join the most crazy beach party at Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan, Thailand.
Some Full Moon Packages and accommodations available.


Happy Wesak Moon!