Every Night There's The Moon

Friday, July 20, 2012

July 20, 1969: We Are On The Fucking Moon

Monday, June 25, 2012

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

Sunday, June 3, 2012

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.

Friday, June 1, 2012

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

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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.

Monday, May 28, 2012

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

Thursday, May 24, 2012

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.