Our Mysterious Moon

Our Mysterious Moon and its Complicated Cotillion

We all remember exactly where we were, though, when man first set foot on that rock. My husband was on his way to Vietnam and we were having one last visit with his family near Glidden. My goosebumps and tears accompanied Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon–the same moon we would see from the yard that night.

      But for the most part, we do take our planet and the heavens for granted. We had to be reminded of its awesomeness by astronauts. Our faithful moon glides with us as we circle the sun, making one slow-motion pirouette during its trip around us. Although we always view the same side of this pale dancer, because of its tilt and its bows and curtsies, called librations, about 59 percent if it is actually revealed to us.

      During its complicated cotillion, the moon is costumed by reflections and shadows–waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent, and new moon–its phases. One unabridged performance takes 29 12 days and is accompanied by the solo patterns of each of the nine planets in our home galaxy and by the seasonal choreography of the constellations. As we revolved around our sun, those star patterns rise and set about four minutes earlier each night.

      Our gravity keeps the Earth in a perpetual minuet with this “cool, inert, over-sized rock,” waltzing close at perigee, dipping away at apogee. At the same time, the moon’s gravity does a two-step ebb and flow with the Earth’s seas, creating the rhythms of high and low tides, moving from east to west as we spin. . . . 

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This entire story was first published by The Dallas County News, March 28, 1996. It’s also the third story in Chapter 1: Celestial in The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland.

You could also ask your local library for a copy.

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Well, there’s a lunar eclipse this week, the night of August 27 and 28. The map and times are from Live Storm Chaser.

Eclipse time: EDT (an hour earlier for Central Daylight Time)
Penumbral eclipse begins: 9:24 PM Thursday
Partial eclipse begins: 10:33 PM Thursday
Maximum eclipse: 12:12 AM Friday
Partial eclipse ends: 1:51 AM Friday

This link will show where else on the planet the eclipse is visible and when.