The Moon

[Jim Colyer]

I used maps to identify the moon's prominent features. Dark lava plains are called maria (seas). Lava flowed from the moon's interior when impacts were hard enough. 5 seas combine to form a foot with 3 toes: Serenity, Tranquillity, Crises, Fertility and Nectar.

The moon is geologically dead. If a meteor hits, the crater is more or less permanent. There are some interesting craters. Copernicus, Kepler and Aristarchus form a Y shape. Tycho in the south is outstanding. Ptolomaeus is big. Aristarchus is the brightest spot on the moon. Plato is the darkest. Near Plato, is the formation I call "the hips." Craters have central peaks. They are caused by the ground bouncing back. Recent craters have rays extending from them. The rays are material which was thrown out. The moon has mountain ranges. The Apennine mountains rise 20,000 feet.

Until recently, it was thought the earth and moon formed at the same time. It now appears that the moon came into existence when a large asteroid crashed into the earth and ripped part of it away. This accounts for the moon having no metal core. Old theories are earth-based. New theories are space-based.

Over time, the earth has slowed the moon's spin until it keeps the same side to us. The moon experiences 2 weeks of daylight followed by 2 weeks of night. There is no such thing as a "dark side" of the moon because the side we do not see gets 2 weeks of light each month.

From the moon, the earth is stationary but goes through phases. The sky on the moon is black because there is no atmosphere. Our blue sky is the result of light being reflected by air.

Earthshine is seen during the moon's crescent phases when the moon is nearly in line with the sun and the earth, evening or morning. Earthshine is sunlight bouncing off the earth, hitting the moon and coming back to our eyes. It is earth lighting the lunar night. It can be noticed the horns of the moon always point away from the sun.

The phases of the moon are new moon, crescent, first quarter, gibbous, full moon, gibbous, last quarter and crescent. The new moon is "no moon" because the side relecting the sun is turned away from us. The moon appears to wax and wane in its monthly orbit.

Light travels between the earth and moon in 1.2 seconds. The line between day and night on the moon is called the terminator.

The moon is about 240,000 miles from Earth, at our doorstep. If we drove around the world 10 times, we could be on the moon.

The moon causes the tides in our oceans. It tugs at our atmosphere as well, but we are so deep in the atmosphere that we are unaware of it. The moon is imperceptively moving away.

In March, 1960, I saw a total lunar eclipse. The moon took on a dark, copper color but remained visible because of sunlight refracted onto it by the earth's atmosphere.

An eclipse of the moon occurs when the moon passes through the earth's shadow. A lunar eclipse occurs during a full moon. Usually, the moon passes above or below the earth's shadow.

I saw a solar eclipse in Nashville in 1979. During a solar eclipse, the moon passes between the earth and the sun. Solar eclipses are seen less than lunar eclipses because of the relative sizes of the shadows cast by the earth and moon. The earth casts a large shadow, making eclipses of the moon common. The moon casts a small shadow, so eclipses of the sun are fleeting.

A ring of sunlight circles the moon during an annular (ring) eclipse because the moon is at its greatest distance from the earth. It is a coincidence that the sun and moon appear to be the same size in the sky.

American astronauts went to the moon 6 times between 1969 and 1972. 12 men walked on its surface. Neil Armstrong was the first. He made a mistake when he delivered the prepared statement. He said, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He meant to say, "One small step for a man." Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquillity. Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon.

The temperature of the moon's surface varies 500 degrees, from 225 degrees to -275 degrees. There is no sound on the moon because sound is the vibration of air. There is no color except for the blue earth in the sky.

The moon rocks showed the moon's minerals to vary somewhat from those found on Earth. There were no fossils in the moon rocks. Life began in the sea, and at no time has the moon had water.

The Russians took the first pictures of the far side of the moon. There are not as many lava plains on the far side.

A blue moon is the second full moon occurring in any month. Blue moons are not so rare. They occur on an average of every 2.72.

Wierdos claim man did not go to the moon, that it was staged. They offer as proof the American flag blowing in the wind in the picture supposedly taken on the moon. There is no wind on the moon. Fact is, NASA treated the flag to make it stiff so it would stick out and be seen. I do not know if people who think we never went to the moon are crazy or stupid or making a joke. I sat in a parking lot in Nashville and debated Bart Sibrel about this. Bart was convinced man never went to the moon. It came out in the national news that he approached Buzz Aldrin (the second man on the moon) in California and tried to force him to swear on a Bible that the moon landings were real. Aldrin punched him in the nose. Bart tried to sue. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office refused to file a battery charge. Rest assured, man set foot on the moon and is on his way to Mars.

ASTRONOMY http://jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=2