Celestial Silver Dollar

I walk the dog late at night, just to be sure he doesn’t nudge me awake in the wee hours of the morning. The walk can be a chore when I’m tired but most nights it’s a quiet, peaceful stroll through our pitch-black horse pastures. We’re usually blessed with clear skies here in South Carolina, which means the stars and planets put on a display worthy of a paid ticket to an observatory. Regardless, the moment I’m out the door I’m in search of my other faithful companion: the moon.

Through the trees

The “heavens” offer a plethora of topics to blog about (which I have: Saturn in Of Rings and Romans or Starlink satellites in Celestial Strings of Pearls, for example) but I’m overdue with a few words about the moon. Our nearest galactic neighbor is a constant wonder to me.  The moon (or is it “The Moon”?) is the reason we have ocean tides here on Earth and solar eclipses far, far away.  The moon has been the target of some of the most impressive space technology and exploration in history.  But let’s put the science aside, shall we?  Today I’d rather just muse about the moon as its sits in the night sky, like a shiny silver dollar laid out on top of a black velvet cloth.

My favorite moons are full – the perfectly round ones – but the shadowed partials can be just as beautiful.  Depending on the season and the atmosphere, the moon takes on countless looks.  Some nights it rises giant above the trees, as if invisible binoculars rest before my eyes.  Other nights the moon sits as an elegant crescent, a perfectly white slice of melon.  Still other nights the moon doesn’t rise at all, or at least, not until well after I’m in bed.  It’s a guessing game every time the dog and I head out into the dark.

I also make a game of trying to guess when the moon is full just by looking at it.  On the nights just before or after it occurs the moon can still appear as full.  So you have to look very carefully at the edges to decide if it’s perfectly round or not.  Conveniently, the moon is full about once a month, or at least, once every month in 2024.  Next year or the year after, perhaps we’ll get a “blue”: that second full moon in a calendar month.  Doesn’t happen very often, of course.

Here’s a fascinating fact about the moon.  It’s locked into place by the earth’s gravity, meaning it’s always showing you the same face.  Try to picture the earth taking a trip around the sun (once a year or so), while it’s spinning on its own axis (once a day), while the moon is spinning around the earth.  Technically the moon is rotating, just not on its own axis.  So you never get to see “the dark side”.

Here’s another fact that makes me pause.  If you drive across the United States from coast to coast and back again, you’re driving about 6,000 miles.  Do that same drive thirty times and you’ve driven to the moon.  Suddenly our celestial silver dollar doesn’t seem so far away, does it?

The next full moon (from my perspective), nicknamed “The Wolf”, is a week from this posting, on Thursday, January 25th.  It’ll be the first full one of the new year.  Good timing really, because some of you readers don’t make it to my blog until several days after the fact.  If you’re exactly a week late, walk outside tonight after dark.  A spectacular scene in the heavens awaits.

Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

22 thoughts on “Celestial Silver Dollar”

  1. Hi Dave! Thanks for this post. I have a pretty solid connection to the moon….as it was my mom’s family name and I, like you, feel the tangible mystery and beauty of it each and every night. P

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  3. I like the names for full moons. Depending on the culture they come from they differ of course. I can groove on the Wolf Moon if the sky is clear which so far this month hasn’t been happening.

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  6. I always love seeing the moon, but it seems we can only see it half the year in our apartment. The other night I saw Orions Belt out my window, I don’t think I’d ever seen stars before. I took some astronomy classes in college and space is pretty fascinating.

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    1. I used to know the locations of the major stars (ex. Arcturus, Polaris) but I’m better with the constellations. Orion is constantly bright in our sky, as is Cassiopeia, but I’d swear the Big/Little Dippers were more prominent in Colorado skies. And yes, we have fewer obstacles than you do to see the moon, ha.

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  8. Those were some interesting facts Dave. I liked how you put it in perspective about how far from here the moon really is – it gives us a better sense of the distance. It’s amazing how the moon seems like it is “right there, in your face” and to think we stared at the very same moon at our childhood bedroom window while mom would tell us the moon was made of cheese and we believed her. Hmm – they don’t make Triscuit crackers THAT big to accommodate that much cheese!

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    1. Love the Triscuit comment. I used to overload them (and Wheat Thins) with that orange Wispride spreadable cheese. Now I’m more sensible with my diet and just eat the crackers plain 😉

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      1. Yes, the Triscuit comment was just for you. 🙂 I will eat Swiss cheese as it is the lowest in sodium and you still get your calcium. I used to love the Laughing Cow wedges. I saw them at the store around the holidays – even the light version had a lot of salt. I eat healthy too so I try to avoid sodium. [Lions win again – I heard fireworks in the ‘hood. One more playoff game and hopefully SB bound!]

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    1. If this is the one I’ve been reading about, it was scrapped after it launched. Something went wrong before it even left Earth’s atmosphere. Thank goodness it was unmanned. Space burials – good grief.

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  10. I found myself looking outside as night sets in, after reading this post, but alas it’s snowing, can’t see the moon tonight. Those clear nights when the full moon hangs over the mountains are breathtaking. Worth being up in the middle of the night to see.

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  11. All this talk about the moon and no comments about the kind that adolescent pranksters (usually boys) are fond of displaying? I thought the discussion of Orion’s belt might get us there, but apparently not.

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