Picture I Took

I took this picture a few months back. I like the way the moon was shining through the branches.

Cat Stevens - Moonshadow (live)

This is a beautiful song.

MOONLIGHT SONATA (Beethoven)

This is beautiful!

Moonlit Path

MOONLIT PATH

Try too reach and touch the stars.
Imagine them sifting through your fingers
As in a deep, silent pool.
The full moon above
Shines down coldly upon us
And colors the earth in shades
Of blue, black and gray.

A slight breeze stirs the air,
Carrying sounds from far away.
A dog barks in the distance,
A train rolls through town
On a late night run to somewhere.

Light, wispy clouds pass by from the north,
And briefly cover the moon like a veil,
Before they drift away.
The breeze softly rustles
The dry cornstalks left in the field.

This peaceful night;
This beautiful, peaceful night.
All alone, you and I,
In this world of blue and gray,
Walking the snowy, moonlit path,
Gazing up to the heavens,
Hoping to someday touch the stars.

author unknown

Chinese Poetry About The Moon

The moon, along with fine wine and beautiful women, is a favorite topic for the Chinese poets.



On Climbing You-Chou Terrace

Ahead I cannot see the ancient faces,

Behind I cannot see the coming sages.

I brood upon the endlessness of Nature,

Lonely and sick at heart, with falling tears.

Chen Ziang Poetry

First Moon Landing 1969

Who could ever forget this video!

Moon Reflection

Harvest Moon

Why is the harvest moon called the Harvest Moon?

The Harvest Moon is a full moon that graces our skies each autumn. It’s the name for the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. In the northern hemisphere, look for the Harvest Moon to appear in September or October.

Why the name Harvest Moon? It’s more than just a connection to the season of harvest. In fact, nature is particularly cooperative during the months of autumn to make the Harvest Moon useful to farmers.

Here’s what happens. The moon generally rises about 50 minutes later each day. But near the time of the autumnal equinox, the moon rises only about 30 minutes later each day. Why? The reason is that, in autumn, the ecliptic – or path of the sun, moon and planets – makes a narrow angle with the evening horizon. The moon’s path in autumn creates a shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises.

The shorter-than-usual time between moonrises means there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise . . .

So, in the days before tractor lights, the autumn full moon helped farmers bringing in their crops.

As the sun’s light faded in the west, the full moon would rise in the east to illuminate the fields for several more hours of work. Who named the Harvest Moon? That name probably sprang to the lips of farmers throughout the northern hemisphere, on autumn evenings, as the autumn full moon aided in bringing in the crops.

http://www.earthsky.org/faq/harvest-moon

Dancing In The Moonlight

Here is the lyrics of one of my favorite songs -

Dancing In The Moonlight
( King Harvest )

We get it on most every night

When that old moon gets so big and bright

It's a supernatural delightEverybody was dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody here is out of sight

They don't bark, and they don't bite

They keep things loose, they keep things light

Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody's feelin' warm and rightIt's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

We like our fun and we never fight

You can't dance and stay uptightIt's a supernatural delight

Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody's feelin' warm and rightIt's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight[break]

Everybody here is out of sight

They don't bark, and they don't bite

They keep things loose, they keep things light

Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlightEverybody's feelin' warm and right

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlightEverybody's feelin' warm and right

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlightEverybody's feelin' warm and right

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

Once In a Blue Moon

Although the full moon that occurred Tuesday, May 20, 2008, looked like an ordinary full moon, it was actually a bit extraordinary—a blue moon.

What is a Blue Moon?
There are in fact two definitions for a blue moon. According to the more recent definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days).

The Other Kind of Blue Moon
May 2008's blue moon qualified as such under an older definition, which is recorded in early issues of the Maine Farmer's Almanac. According to this definition, the blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. Why would one want to identify the third full moon in a season of four full moons? The answer is complex, and has to do with the Christian ecclesiastical calendar.
Some years have an extra full moon—13 instead of 12. Since the identity of the moons was important in the ecclesiastical calendar (the Paschal Moon, for example, used to be crucial for determining the date of Easter), a year with a thirteenth moon skewed the calendar, since there were names for only 12 moons. By identifying the extra, thirteenth moon as a blue moon, the ecclesiastical calendar was able to stay on track.
For a fuller explanation see http://www.inconstantmoon.com/cyc_blue.htm. For more background information on the controversy over the two definitions of blue moon, see the Sky and Telescope article, "What's a Blue Moon?" In it they explain how the two different definitions of a blue moon came about—including their own role in introducing the second, modern definition.

A Star Rating for the Modern Blue Moon
Although Sky & Telescope calls the modern blue moon definition "trendy" and a "mistake," the fact that there is an older, preexisting (and more complicated) definition does not necessarily make it the more interesting or meaningful definition. Charting the "third full moon in four full moons" in a season isn't everyone's idea of an fascinating enterprise. The modern, "trendy" definition, however, points to an intriguing astronomical phenomenon—every so often two moons can manage to position themselves in the same month. Given that full moons occur once every 29.5 days, this is quite an accomplishment!

How Often Does a Blue Moon Occur?
Over the next 20 years there will be about 15 blue moons, with an almost equal number of both types of blue moons occurring. No blue moon of any kind will occur in the years 2011, 2014, and 2017.
The more recent phenomenon, where the blue moon is considered to be the second full moon in a calendar month, last occurred on May 31, 2007. Two full moons in one month may occur in any month out of the year except for February, which is shorter than the lunar cycle.
The other, older blue moon event, which happens when there are four full moons in a season, last occured in August 2005. Since this type of blue moon is reckoned according to the seasons, it can only occur in February, May, August, or November, about a month before the equinox or the solstice.

In The Light of The Moon

0 Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east;
Shine, be increased:
0 Lady Moon, your horns point toward the west;
Wane, be at rest.

From Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti


Is the moon tired? she looks so pale
Within her misty veil:
She scales the sky from east to west,
And takes no rest.
Before the coming of the night
The moon shows papery white;
Before the dawning of the day
She fades away.

From Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)


From The Rime of the Acient Mariner

The moving Moon went up the sky.
And nowhere did abide;
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside-


By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)


TO THE MOON

Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing,
like a Joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?

By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)


THE HALF MOON SHOWSA FACE OF PLAINTIVE SWEETNESS
The half moon shows a face of plaintive sweetness
Ready and poised to wax or wane;
A fire of pale desire in incompleteness,
Tending to pleasure or to pain:
-Lo, while we gaze she rolleth on in fleetness
To perfect loss or perfect gain.
Half bitterness we know, we know half sweetness;
This world is all on wax, on wane:
When shall completeness round time's incompleteness,
Fulfilling joy, fulfilling pain?
-Lo, while we ask, life rolleth on in fleetness
To finished loss or finished gain.

By Christina Rossetti


Silver
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy coat the white breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.
- Walter de la Mare