Starship Asterisk*

by **Fred the Cat** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 1:51 am

Not often it's clear

this time of year but tonight's

full moon, I'd cheer!

by **johnnydeep** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 8:28 pm

De58te wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:55 pm I can understand the frustration with the relevancy of the traditional full moon names for people that live in the Southern Hemisphere. For example what do Australians make of the Harvest Moon falling at the beginning of springtime when farmers are more likely planting seeds instead of harvesting? Also the so called Cold Moon actually falls during the sweltering heat days of summer! But then when they look at a world map, why is the southern hemisphere always on the bottom. In space there is no up or down. The Earth's south pole could just as easily be illustrated at the top.This just shows that the majority rules and there are more people living in the Northern Hemisphere. So in other words, in science, the North Rules!

In space, "down" is always in the direction of increasing gravitational field strength.

by **zendae** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 6:51 pm

De58te wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:55 pm I can understand the frustration with the relevancy of the traditional full moon names for people that live in the Southern Hemisphere. For example what do Australians make of the Harvest Moon falling at the beginning of springtime when farmers are more likely planting seeds instead of harvesting? Also the so called Cold Moon actually falls during the sweltering heat days of summer! But then when they look at a world map, why is the southern hemisphere always on the bottom. In space there is no up or down. The Earth's south pole could just as easily be illustrated at the top.This just shows that the majority rules and there are more people living in the Northern Hemisphere. So in other words, in science, the North Rules!

https://preview.redd.it/ap6cdid03h121.g ... c5ba93b7ca

This will explain it. You will see why so many more live in the Northern Hemisphere. There is far far less land mass south of the equator.

by **De58te** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:55 pm

I can understand the frustration with the relevancy of the traditional full moon names for people that live in the Southern Hemisphere. For example what do Australians make of the Harvest Moon falling at the beginning of springtime when farmers are more likely planting seeds instead of harvesting? Also the so called Cold Moon actually falls during the sweltering heat days of summer! But then when they look at a world map, why is the southern hemisphere always on the bottom. In space there is no up or down. The Earth's south pole could just as easily be illustrated at the top.This just shows that the majority rules and there are more people living in the Northern Hemisphere. So in other words, in science, the North Rules!

by **Dardanelles** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 4:47 pm

A science page with an international audience shouldn't describe something as "traditional" without saying what tradition they're referring to.
According to wikipedia:
"The Maine Farmers' Almanac from around the 1930s began to publish Native American "Indian" full moon names, some of which had been adopted by colonial Americans.[21] The Farmers' Almanac (since 1955 published in Maine, but not the same publication as the Maine Farmers' Almanac) continues to do so.[22]
An early list of "Indian month names" was published in 1918 by Daniel Carter Beard in his The American Boy's Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols for use by the boy scouts.
Such names have gained currency in American folklore. ... Haddock supposes that certain "Colonial American" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (which were formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others are based in European tradition (e.g. the Colonial American names for the May moon, "Milk Moon", "Mother's Moon", "Hare Moon" have no parallels in the supposed native names, while the name of November, "Beaver Moon" or “Sponge Moon” is supposedly based in an Algonquian language)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moon

Do they have an analogous tradition in Sri Lanka? That would be interesting to learn about and compare.

by **orin stepanek** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 3:23 pm

First moon; It's Wolf O'clock!

I really like this! There's something hypnotic about a beautiful Full
Moon!

by **Chris Peterson** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 3:14 pm

JohnD wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:53 am Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Not more of this falsely nominative Full Moon stuff! Might as well name them 'Haircut Moon', 'Pancake Moon' (February) or 'Mother in Law Moon' (That's when she visits). These names have nothing to do with the seasonal events, and have no place on a science website! Publish this on "Goop" please!
John

They have everything to do with the intersection of science and culture, and as such very much belong in this forum.

by **Ann** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 12:16 pm

: Dots like these from 23,000 years ago helped Ice Age hunter-gatherers survive.

: Furniture conservator Ben Bacon made the initial discovery about the lunar calendar on cave paintings.

The Guardian wrote: A London furniture conservator has been credited with a crucial discovery that has helped understand why Ice Age hunter-gatherers drew cave paintings.

Ben Bacon analysed 20,000-year-old markings on the drawings, concluding they could refer to a lunar calendar.
...
He collaborated with a team including two professors from Durham University and one from University College London and, by working out the birth cycles of similar present-day animals, they deduced that the number of marks on the cave paintings was a record, by lunar month, of the animals' mating seasons.

Like John D in the post above mine, I was slightly bored by today's APOD.

But, you know, without the Moon, dear old Luna, where would we be? Perhaps we would have been extinct for many millennia.

Or perhaps we would never have existed in the first place, and the Earth might have been an inhospitable rock, like Mars or Venus.

Ann

by **JohnD** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 11:53 am

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Not more of this falsely nominative Full Moon stuff! Might as well name them 'Haircut Moon', 'Pancake Moon' (February) or 'Mother in Law Moon' (That's when she visits). These names have nothing to do with the seasonal events, and have no place on a science website! Publish this on "Goop" please!
John

by **APOD Robot** » Fri Jan 06, 2023 5:07 am

Moon O'Clock 2022

Explanation: The first Full Moon of 2023 is in the sky tonight opposite the Sun at 23:08 UTC. Big and beautiful, the Moon at its brightest phase should be easy to spot. Still, for quick reference images captured near the times of all the full moons of 2022 are aranged in this dedicated astro-imaging project from Sri Lanka, planet Earth. The day, month, and a traditional popular name for 2022's twelve full moons are given in the chart. The apparent size of each full moon depends on how close the full lunar phase is to perigee or apogee, the closest or farthest point in the Moon's elliptical orbit. Like the 2022 Wolf Moon at the 1 o'clock position, tonight's Full Moon occurs within a about two days of apogee. But unlike in 2022, the year 2023 will have 13 full moons that won't all fit nicely on the twelve hour clock.

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