The Moon

Various names and descriptions have been given to the Moon from culture to culture and from civilization to civilization. These names and descriptions came about mainly out of religious beliefs and from various interpretations of those who were fascinated by it, feared it or simply worshipped it. The goddess of Moon in Roman has been given the name "Luna", while the Greek named it Selene, one of the many Greek deities. By studying and analyzing Moon rocks, scientists believe that the moon was created as a result of a collision of an ancient planet with the planet earth, approximately four billions years ago. The Moon has two faces (sides), the side which we see all the time, and the side which we can not see, sometimes referred to as the dark side of the Moon. The only way to see the other side is by going to space. The connection between the Moon, the living and the dead has been with us since pre-historic times. Therefore, the Moon was, and still is the focus of many people in various cultures across the globe, but in particular among poets and writers, who looked at it and wrote about what they saw, what they felt and what they imagined.

Sadly, according to scientists, the Moon is moving away from us (from earth) a few centimetres every year!

Looking at the full Moon, the feeling certainly may vary from one person to another. You may feel a little bit "safer" looking at "The Full Moon" at noon, if you can see it, and may be with a different feeling when you see "The Full Moon" at midnight - clearly that depends on who you are, where you are, your gender and whether you are alone or with someone close to you!

Historically speaking, romance and the Moon have always been part of each other and part of the inspirations for love and lovers, as well as part of the emotions and minds of those who simply dedicated their time to write about it.

In addition to the above, some believe that even mental illness can be exacerbated when there is a full Moon! Not to mention the use of the Moon by horror writers and filmmakers who, by scaring their audience, made their own fame and fortune.

The various love stories associated with the Moon, whether real, exaggerated or simply made up, still form a big part of the human psyche and human culture; therefore, it is an important part of the human insight, with or without the emotional or spiritual connection.

The Moon can also be associated with various witchcrafts, sorceries, spells, as well as with the dead.

Witchcrafts or witches use the cycles of the Moon as part of their ceremonies, initiations and festivals.

When it comes to those who left this world, then the Moon plays another important part. Many spiritualists and some Far Eastern religions believe that some departed souls are associated with the Moon, during various stages; it could be related to a recent or none-recent death. According to some of these religions/spiritualists, the Moon work as a temporary (or "sometime" even permanent) station for the departed souls before moving on to the next world.

The Moon is a natural satellite of the earth and, therefore it has an important part to play in relation to life on earth and the earth's general environment. That means, without the Moon, the world will be a different place and life as we know it today will be very difficult to continue, if not impossible.

Observing the Moon

Our moon is a good astronomical target for stargazers for many good reasons. First of all it is very straightforward to identify. If you can't find it in the sky, it probably simply means it is not currently there in the sky, whether because it's a new moon or because it's already set behind the horizion. Secondly it is the nearest thing for us to view here on Earth, and is the only object other than the Sun that may be observed as something besides a dot of light using the human eye alone. This permits us all to examine its surface area with good detail with optical aids that are offered to everyone. The very best telescopes are typically not even a necessity to watch the Moon, merely a pair of binoculars or even just just the naked eye.

The initial thing you ought to know about viewing our Moon is its cycle of phases. The moon moves around our planet nearly every 4 weeks. During this period the Moon's position in regards to the Earth and Sun changes, and consequently the way in which it looks illuminated from our perspective fluctuates as well. While the Moon is in back of the planet Earth, we perceive the total lit up portion of the Moon; this is called a full moon. Since it circles around the our planet, over time less of the Moon's illuminated exterior will become visible to us on Earth. During this time period the Moon is regarded to be waning. As it is waning it's going to pass through the stages referred to as Gibbous, Quarter, and Crescent, each exhibiting less and less of its lit up area, until finally it gets to the New Moon phase. During this time period the Moon is positioned in between our planet and the Sun and therefore is not visible in the evening sky. After that, it starts the waxing phase and goes through the above mentioned phases, this time in the opposite direction, until finally it's full again.

Many people would certainly believe that the best stage to head out stargazing for the Moon would certainly be the Full Moon phase, this is really incorrect. Watching throughout the Full Moon is actually considerably stressful on the eyes, because at this time it can be seven percent as luminous the Sun. Observing throughout the Full Moon is additionally not optimal since hardly any dark areas tend to be present on the surface of the Moon and as a result its physical appearance is likely to appear washed over.

Viewing through the intermediate Moon phases is undoubtedly optimal, given that the shadows developed by the perspective of the Sun makes all the features stand out at the observer and creates excellent contrasts on the Moon's exterior. The best quality contrasts can be seen along side the terminator, or the term for the separating line between the dark and illuminated parts of the Moon.

The Moon's surface is full of numerous interesting features which are superb to observe. The most widely known elements may just be the many craters which are found on the Moon. These craters were created by asteroids many years ago from the creation years of the Moon and our planet. Additionally, you will notice massive darker sectors upon the Moon, called Mare, which is latin for "seas". These are not really waters but instead great areas of rock made from volcanoes. In addition, the same as the Earth, the Moon has a variety of various mountains and valleys which can be seen too. It is best that you find a map of the moon, in order to identify and read about the individual topographical features found on the Moon.

The Origins of The Solar System

We live in a universe of almost unimaginable size. To give you an idea of the scale, we can only use optical and radio methods to observe objects out to about 13,000 million light years away and nobody knows what lies beyond that. Closer to us we can see clusters of galaxies at distances out to about 750 million light years. The other galaxies of what is know as the Local Group of galaxies are all within 2.5 million light years of us. These galaxies are composed of millions and billions of stars.

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a typical spiral galaxy. This means is looks like a great swirling whirlpool with spiral arms extending out from the center. The Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years in diameter and our own star, the Sun, lies on the edge of one of the spiral arms. The Sun is about 30,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy and takes 225 million years to complete one orbit around the galactic center.

According to modern scientific theory the star we call the Sun was formed about 4,500 million years ago. The Solar System originated when gravitational forces caused what is called the solar nebula to collapse and coalesce into a spinning disc with the central mass forming the Sun. The planets formed from large clouds of gas and dust which gradually built up over million of years as they orbited the central mass of the disc.

The central mass continued to build up in size and as it did the gravitational field it exerted grew stronger. As the gravitational field grew stronger the central mass pulled in more gas and dust and grew even larger.

Eventually, the gravitational force became so powerful that the temperature and pressure at the center of the mass rose high enough to cause hydrogen atoms to undergo fusion into helium atoms. This fusion reaction releases enormous amounts of energy and is the source of the Suns power.

Now illuminated by the Suns rays, the planets of our solar system continued to form and transform. All of the planets have undergone a great deal of change since they first accreted. These changes were brought about in a variety of ways, including violent collisions which resulted in craters that can still be seen today. The planets also went through changes caused by volcanism, melting, structural deformation and the release of gases from deep within.

The planets of our Solar System are generally divided into two groups. The inner planets, which include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars and the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and until recently the Dwarf Planet Pluto. The inner planets are all characterized by having solid surfaces and are relatively small compared to the outer planets. The outer planets are all characterized by not having a solid surface and are often referred to as gas giants. The inner and outer planets are also separated by a band of asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

Comets, meteors and asteroids can also be found orbiting the sun in large numbers from the outer reaches of the Solar System to very close to the Sun. Comets are balls of frozen liquids and dust which often follow eccentric orbits for outside the orbit of Dwarf Planet Pluto and only display their characteristic tails when their orbit brings them closer to the Sun. Asteroids and meteors are both made mainly of rock. The difference between asteroids and meteors is their size, meteors can be as small a grain of dust, asteroids can be miles in diameter and are sometimes called planetoids.

At the outer fringes of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune is the Kuiper belt where at least three dwarf planets orbit. They are Ceres, Pluto and Eris and they are accompanied by millions of smaller objects about which little is known. At this time a variety of spacecraft are either on their way to the far reaches of the Solar System or are planned for the near future. It will be fascinating to see what wonders these space probes will tell us about the Solar System we call home.