Harvesting Lunar Interest

“The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.” ~Frederick L. Knowles

Perhaps upon a starry night – about 4.5 billion years ago--two planets collided in the solar system and all the debris from that wreck formed a single planet we call the Moon. In its early days, the moon had active volcanoes and fire fountains. The volcanoes no longer erupt, and you can now find orange-colored moon rocks; left over from the flaming fountains. Every once in a while there are Moonquakes; almost like what we have on earth.

Only 12 people have ever been, though one day everyone will likely be able to visit the moon, as well as other planets. But if you plan on going, keep in mind it will take about nine years to walk there or 135 hours by car. Don’t worry if the moon doesn’t look quite the same up close, it’s not really round (as it appears from Earth) but egg-shaped.

In the month of September our full moon (Sept. 16^th) is called the Harvest Moon because it’s the season when fruit and vegetable crops are ready to be gathered from the fields, and the brightness of the moon allows the farmers longer days to do so. Sometimes the Harvest Moon is an autumn orange color due to its closeness to earth and all the dust in our atmosphere.

This year September will have an extra full moon (Sept. 30^th) called the Blue Moon, which is pretty special since it only happens every two years or so. It is believed the Blue Moon got its name after a massive volcano (Krakatoa) eruption in 1883 spewed blue smoke into the atmosphere.

Would you go to the moon? Have you ever worked or played by the light of a big full moon?

 

By all these lovely tokens September days are here
with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer.
- Helen Hunt Jackson