Go Ahead: Observe the Moon

A late-summer thunderstorm rumbled past this evening and, in its wake, aslice of clear sky to the southwest revealed a beautiful crescent Moonin the deepening twilight.

A crescent Moon joins Venus on the evening of September 11, 2010, as seen by skywatchers in Firuzkuh, Iran.Babak Tafreshi / TWANSomething about that visage compelled me to go looking for poeticquotes about the Moon. I scanned scores before deciding on this simpleone to share with you. It's by Jean Ingelow, from Part II of her Songs of the Night Watches: The First Watch :

Most beautiful crescent moon,
Ship of the sky!
Across the unfurrowed reaches
sailing high.

Oftenreviled as a spoiler of starlight, the Moon nonetheless delights uswith an ever-changing display while making its inexorable monthlycircuit around Earth. You can train a telescope at a particular crateror other feature and, by the time your evening's observing is over, theinky shadows around it will have shifted slightly but perceptibly.

Behonest: when was the last time you slewed your scope over to the Moonfor some careful scrutiny? Or have you ever dusted off the binocularsstashed in the hall closet to see just how many lunar details you canpick out at 7× or 10×?

Whenthe Moon is full, its craters, mountains, and other surface featuresappear muted because the high Sun casts no shadows as seen from ourearthbound perspective.Gary SeronikWell, if you've been looking for an excuse to do some Moonwatching, here it is: September 18th is "International Observe the Moon Night." It's the brainchild of several "Moon Units" within and related to NASA: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, Lunar Science Institute, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and Lunar Quest.

Partneringwith Astronomers Without Borders, these teams hope the success ofrecent missions — led by last year's crater-whacking LCROSS and theongoing LRO, along with the international missions Kaguya, Chandrayaan1, and Chang'e 1, will rekindle public interest in observing andstudying the Moon.

The plan is simple: go out and look on the18th, when a plump, gibbous orb will be gliding across the southern halfof the sky. Many organized activities are in the works; check out the event map to find one near you.

LPI / AWBOr make your own event. Head for a pedestrian hotspot in yourtown with a telescope in tow, and crowds will surely gather for a lookthrough the eyepiece. (Trust me: no matter how bad your light pollution,the Moon is still an arresting sight when seen telescopically.)

Evenif your scope-less, the organizers have pulled together lots ofentertaining online content for various sources, such as alunar-exploration timeline, a guided tour, and a call for Moon-inspired poetry. The event's portal at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is here.

Ifyou've got the time and inclination to view the Moon multiple times inthe coming weeks, I highly recommend Patrick Thibault's can't-miss Month of Moonwatching.

Theplan, according to Brooke Hsu at NASA-GSFC, is to make this newfoundappreciation of all things lunar an annual celebration. This year'stheme is "Seeing the Moon in a whole new light!" Other themes are in theworks through at least 2014.

Posted by Kelly Beatty, September 13, 2010related content: Observing our solar system