Unlike the dark, moonless skies we’ve had the last few weeks, the Moon shows itself prominently for the next fourteen days or so; weather permitting of course.
Of all the objects in the night sky, the most dominant by far is the Moon. Long before we had a written history, it was among the first recognizable symbols when caveman began writing on stone.
It has been only recently that we’ve discovered its true nature. Only four hundred years ago when Galileo first turned his telescope on it, the religious philosophy of the day stated that the Moon, being in the heavens, could be nothing other than a perfect sphere. When he wrote that it appeared ‘uneven’ and ‘rough’, things did not go well for him.
Luckily for us, we currently have more flexible ideas and far better optics; even the most inexpensive of telescopes will show the ‘uneven & rough’ terrain of our natural satellite. Like the Earth, the Moon is covered in mountains and valleys; however, the Moon’s lack of atmosphere means it’s entire 4.5 billion year history of meteor impacts show as clearly today as at the moment they occurred.
Astronomers in general ignore the Moon, actually despising it because it washes out the sky and makes other things harder to see. However, that does not mean it isn’t interesting. Although the Moon is so common a sight that we too tend to ignore it, someone’s first view of it through a telescope is guaranteed to solicit a “Wow”. The perfect target for a child’s new scope, it never fails to impress.
The best views are a few days on either side of its First Quarter, the time when it appears half lit and half dark. The shadows along the terminator, the dividing line between light and darkness, make the craters, mountains and valleys stand out in great relief, giving it a very three-dimensional look. It truly does look like you can reach out and touch it. First Quarter this month happens on the 11th (when, incidentally, the Moon lies five degrees above Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo).
But the view through a telescope is just a bonus.
The universe that we travel through is a vast, cold place. Our moon was born when a Mars-sized piece of rock gave our young, molten Earth a whack, knocking off a sizable chunk which would eventually be captured by our gravity and end up in orbit around us. No freak collision, no Moon.
Just being able to look up at our bright companion travelling alongside us makes the journey somehow far less scary. Let the astronomy elite complain all they want; the comfort that its light brings, simply by being there, is worth any possible inconvenience.
