The star we're orbiting is so close that it burns us
and blinds us.
During the hours when our Earth is spinning us through
the damaging radiation of our day star, our eyes
protect themselves by shrinking their pupils.
But when our pupils are shrunken,
we can't see the farther stars.
We seem to be alone
in the cosmos. ~ ~ ~ The
light from our North Star takes
620 years to reach us. So when you look at it,
you're peering 620 years into the past.
The light from the farthest stars you can possibly see
with your naked eye--the Andromeda Galaxy--
takes 2.5 million years to reach your eyes.
So when you look at them, you're
peering 2.5 million years
into the past.
While the Sun's light nurtures our bodies,
starlight nurtures our perspective.
When you let starlight into your eyes, you're
transported beyond the space and time of your body.
The particular stars you see this evening
are the same ones that you saw on this date last year,
on this date next year, and on this date every other year of your
life.
Every time you celebrate the anniversary of an event,
you return to the place in our orbit
where you were when the event happened.
Thanks to our sky-watching ancestors,
we have maps of our yearly journey
--our almanacs and calendars.
They show us where we are in our orbit,
when we travel through the spring and fall equinoxes,
when we travel through the summer and winter solstices,
and where our moon is in her "moonthly" journey around
us.
A date on your calendar
is a place in our orbit.
Time is the pace of
our journey through space.
~ ~ ~
Whatever your place in space--no matter where you are in
our daily spinning
and in our yearly orbiting--our moon is always guarding you,
as it orbits our planet every 29.5 days...
Here's what you see over 29.5 days of looking at our Earth and
moon from space.
Here's what you see over the same 29.5 days of looking up at our
moon from Earth.
The moon's sunlit side is facing away from you,
so you can't see it. This is the "dark of the moon."
The moon has orbited around to where
you see a sliver of its sunlit side.
This is the "waxing crescent."
The moon has traveled through 1/4 of its orbit.
You see a "first quarter moon."
You see most of its sunlit side.
This is the "waxing gibbous moon."
("Gibbous" means hunch back.)
You see only its lit side--"full moon."
Opposite us from the sun, it rises at sunset and it sets at
sunrise.
You see less--but still most--of its sunlit side.
This is the "waning gibbous moon."
It has traveled through 3/4 of its orbit.
You see a "last quarter moon."
It has orbited around to where you see
only a sliver of its sunlit side. This is the "waning
crescent."
Originally, our months were "moonths"--the time the
moon takes to orbit us.
Civil and religious authorities gave us unnatural months.
But natural people know when a month begins
because they see it in the sky.
