Howl At The Moon!

Bright, Beautiful and Sometimes Blue

ust The Facts, Ma'am

Turn To The Dark Side

Ebb and Flow

Moon Mythology

Bright, Beautiful and Sometimes Blue

I was born under a full Moon. I love it when the Moon is full. It has its own special 'effects' on me. Perhaps these 'effects' happen because I was born during a Full Moon Phase one hot, dark, August morning.
Blue Moons are even better...a little more 'special'. What is a Blue Moon you ask? A "Blue Moon" is the name given to the second full moon in a calendar month. The saying "Once in a Blue Moon" means a rare occurrence. In fact, Blue Moons are not all that rare. On average, there will be one Blue Moon every 2.5 years. The next Blue Moon will be June 30, 2007. In January and March of 1999, we had a situation which only takes place about four times a century: two Blue Moons occurring in the same year. The last time this happened was in January and April of 1961 and it will not happen again until January and March of 2018. Because there are roughly 29 days between full moons, it is unusual for two full moons to fit into a 30 or 31 day month. It is impossible to fit into a 28 or 29 day month, so February can never have a Blue Moon. When there is a Full Moon on Halloween, then it is also always a Blue Moon. This is simply because a Full Moon Phase would have already occured at the beginning of the month in order for a Full Moon to fall on Oct. 31st. In 2020, there will be a Blue Moon on Halloween. Full Moons on Halloween occur approx. every 19 years.

ust The Facts, Ma'am

The Moon is an ancient planetary body, little disturbed since the solar system was formed. It is the name given to Earth's only natural satellite. Sometimes the natural satellites of other planets are referred to as 'their moons'. It has been an object of wonder, curiosity, and folklore for people since the beginning of their existence.


Distance From Earth - 238,856 miles (384,401 km)
Diameter - 2,159.14 miles (3,474.8 km)
Mass - 1.2 percent that of Earth (0.012 to 1)
Surface Gravity - 1/6 that of Earth (0.165 to 1)
Orbital Revolution Period Around Earth - 27.32 days
Temperature - 224.6° F(107° C) day/-243.4° F(-153° C) night 



Although there are several theories, the exact origin of the Moon remains unknown. Lunar rocks and meteorites reveal the Moon, Earth, and probably the rest of the planets in our solar system, were formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Its surface was once covered with a molten magma ocean several hundred kilometers deep, and it was once much closer to the Earth than it is today. It is steadily moving farther from Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches per year. The 'cratering' rate 4 billion years ago was one thousand times the current rate, and before that it was even higher. Occasional large impacts, involving meteorites a few kilometers wide, created major craters, throwing out bright rays of pulverized debris across the surface. Smaller meteorite impacts churned the upper soils, producing its basaltic dust and rock surface. Ancient observers of the Moon believed that the dark features on its surface were oceans, giving way to the name maria, which is Latin for seas. The maria formed when molten rock erupted onto the surface and solidified between 4 and 2.5 billion years ago. The moon was always thought to have no movement of wind and water, but in 1998, the team from the Lunar Prospector mission reported finding water ice at both poles. Comet impacts have deposited water on the Moon, and some of it migrated to the very dark and cold areas at the poles.

Turn To The Dark Side

 
We see the same face of the Moon (the 'near side') all the time because the Moon rotates just once on its own axis in very nearly the same time that it travels once around Earth. There is no actual permanent 'dark side' of the Moon. The side of the Moon that faces away from Earth (the 'far side'), is half the time in light and half the time in darkness, just like how it is on Earth. The Moon shows its different phases as it moves along its elliptical orbit around Earth at an average speed of 2,300 mph (3,700 km/h). It takes about 29.5 days for the Moon to go from one phase to the next same phase. This period of time, where the Moon completes 8 major phases, is known as a lunar month. The phases of the Moon depend on how much of the sunlit half can be seen at any one time.

Ebb and Flow

The presence of the Moon stabilizes Earth's wobble. This has led to a much more stable climate over billions of years, which may have affected the course of the development and growth of life on Earth. The Moon keeps orbiting the Earth because they are held together by the pull of gravity. The Earth tugs at the Moon, and the Moon pulls at the Earth. Because the oceans are liquids, they are easily distorted by the pull of the Moon's gravity, thus twice a day, the level of the oceans rise and fall forming our tides.

Moon Mythology

The Moon plays an important role in our lives, even if we never give it much thought. Planting is done on the New Moon, except root crops that are planted on the Waning Moon, and harvesting takes place under a Full Moon when there is more moonlight to work under. Many new businesses open on a New Moon. If you want something to be a success, then you plant it, or start it, on a New Moon. The gravitational pull also helps the body retain fluids during the Full Moon, and more babies seem to be born under Full Moon phases. It is also widely believed that the Full Moon phase gives way to more crimes being committed, more angina attacks, more hemorrhaging during surgery, and more fires started by arsonists. People just seem to be more aggressive and violent under a Full Moon phase. There is said to be more activity in mental institutions when the Moon is full. The belief that the full moon causes mental disorders and strange behavior was widespread throughout Europe in the middle ages, and still continues on today. Mental institutions used to be called 'lunatic' asylums, and 'lunacy' means 'insanity'...both from the Latin word, 'luna', meaning Moon. The influence of the Moon on our behavior has been called "The Lunar Effect" or "The Transylvania Effect". Whether or not these 'effects' can be proven by scientific facts, the myths and folklores are here to stay. Even without valid scientific evidence, it sure does seem to many people that the Moon has some sort of an impact on us for whatever reasons.