We have been graced with a Full Moon this day. I snuck into the Observatory forum of a board I read once in a while and smuggled out a few photos that a contributing member there shot. Shh! Don't tell...
Want to see the moon up close and personal? Check out the interactive maps of the Moon at The Full Moon Atlas.
The winds of an alien moon...
News.Com has a series of photos of Saturn's moon, Titan, taken by the Huygens Probe. Absolutely awesome.
I have an interest in the Moon for a number of reasons, some quite personal. I have been fascinated with the Night Sky since childhood, when I became quite taken with the sky maps of National Geographic. I lived in relatively small cities most of my youth, so the light pollution was negligible, and the atmosphere was relatively free of pollutants in those days. I could go outside my house and look up at what you now have to travel to desolate places to see- the deep black packed densely and exquisitely with stars, planets, double clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and even the dark lanes of interstellar dust running through our own galaxy.
I well remember as a child looking up from my yard at the ribbon of light that is the Milky Way, traversing the sky. Since then, in the winter, my eyes automatically seek out the constellation of Orion, the Great Hunter. It is one of the most recognizable of the star patterns after all, and it's often positioned in the sky so that you can see it even from among the towers of the big cities. But most of all, I identify with the Hunter, having myself hunted with great intensity various things throughout my life. Knowledge mainly. And answers. Then there is Venus- often alternately referred to as the Morning Star and Evening Star- the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. It's the 'star' I wish upon, and have even prayed to.
The last night sky adventure I had involved traveling sufficiently far (about an hour) from the Bay Area to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower some years ago. It was a moving show and well worth the time and trouble.
As far as what the Moon means to me on a more personal level, well, the one thing I'll say about it here is that I used to look at it out my window and found a little comfort in knowing that it also shone on someone very far away from me. If you read my poem in an earlier post, for that same reason, the Moon became painful for me to look upon.
It actually is a reminder of two failed relationships. Both of which dealt me serious blows. I can never reclaim the Moon for what it once meant to me. But I am working on accepting it as a symbol of gain and loss- not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, there is how what we think we have firm in our grasp can so easily slip away. But then there is the person (with grevious shortcomings) that I am no longer. There is a Pain that leads us to ourselves. I have come a long way from who I am not, and that much closer to who I am.
If we can learn to embrace Change, no matter how uncomfortable or painful it may seem, we stand to shed what is false, and therefore damaging, about ourselves and to gain access to our true natures. And this is a truth that can set us free.
The winds of an alien moon...
News.Com has a series of photos of Saturn's moon, Titan, taken by the Huygens Probe. Absolutely awesome.
I have an interest in the Moon for a number of reasons, some quite personal. I have been fascinated with the Night Sky since childhood, when I became quite taken with the sky maps of National Geographic. I lived in relatively small cities most of my youth, so the light pollution was negligible, and the atmosphere was relatively free of pollutants in those days. I could go outside my house and look up at what you now have to travel to desolate places to see- the deep black packed densely and exquisitely with stars, planets, double clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and even the dark lanes of interstellar dust running through our own galaxy.
I well remember as a child looking up from my yard at the ribbon of light that is the Milky Way, traversing the sky. Since then, in the winter, my eyes automatically seek out the constellation of Orion, the Great Hunter. It is one of the most recognizable of the star patterns after all, and it's often positioned in the sky so that you can see it even from among the towers of the big cities. But most of all, I identify with the Hunter, having myself hunted with great intensity various things throughout my life. Knowledge mainly. And answers. Then there is Venus- often alternately referred to as the Morning Star and Evening Star- the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. It's the 'star' I wish upon, and have even prayed to.
The last night sky adventure I had involved traveling sufficiently far (about an hour) from the Bay Area to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower some years ago. It was a moving show and well worth the time and trouble.
As far as what the Moon means to me on a more personal level, well, the one thing I'll say about it here is that I used to look at it out my window and found a little comfort in knowing that it also shone on someone very far away from me. If you read my poem in an earlier post, for that same reason, the Moon became painful for me to look upon.
It actually is a reminder of two failed relationships. Both of which dealt me serious blows. I can never reclaim the Moon for what it once meant to me. But I am working on accepting it as a symbol of gain and loss- not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, there is how what we think we have firm in our grasp can so easily slip away. But then there is the person (with grevious shortcomings) that I am no longer. There is a Pain that leads us to ourselves. I have come a long way from who I am not, and that much closer to who I am.
If we can learn to embrace Change, no matter how uncomfortable or painful it may seem, we stand to shed what is false, and therefore damaging, about ourselves and to gain access to our true natures. And this is a truth that can set us free.
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