Wednesday, October 03, 2012

BRIGG FOLK VIEW EARLY MORNING HEAVENLY BODY

The moon was still visible over Brigg at 9.30am today (Wed) - even though the sun was out.
We know our friend Ken Harrison knows about such things and wonder whether this was at all unusual.


Posted by at

1 comment:

Ken Harrison said...

Back to basics, Scribs....
The Earth and the Moon is each orbiting at different cycles...
The Earth goes around the Sun a fraction over 365 days, while the Moon *orbits the Earth about every 28 days..13 Lunar months in a year..so these heavenly bodies are either spinning, or orbiting each other in a dynamic manner.
Owing to the somewhat out of sync movements of these bodies, we observe the Moon, or at least parts of it relative to its positional alignment with the Sun - remembering that Moon-light is really reflected Sun-light.
It is obversely true that the Sun is only seen during the day-light hours, but the Moon can be seen at any time during the day, or night.
At night-time the Moon is an obvious nocturnal object against the dark sky, but the Moon is equally out during the day-time - although it relective qualities is overwhelmed by the bright day-time.
Quite frequently, both the Sun and Moon can be observed together in the sky....and obviously a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is positioned and directly aligned between the Sun and Earth - a daytime event.
Indeed,a calender of the phases of the Moon, which gives, for example, the exact time of a full moon will indicate that the apex of a full moon can and does occur at anytime during the 24hrs day.
During recent days, particularly during the early hours to early morning, moon-light has been particularly spectectular with moon-light creating an almost ghostly lustre at around 4am.
I assume this has been enhanced by present cold-front over the UK - giving rise to very clear air in the atmosphere.

*Although it is accepted that the Moon orbits the Earth, the Earth also, to a lesser extent, orbits the Moon. This dual orbital dance between the Earth and Moon does have a name - but I can't remember what it is called.

During the Earth's very early evolution, the Moon was much closer to the Earth than it is today....with the Moon appearing very large
Indeed, the Moon is very gradually moving away from the Earth....and, in theory, the Moon could get to a point to escape the Earth's gravitational pull.

It is thought that the Moon is the result of a collision of two planets (the basic Earth with a similar body) during which spillage of molten rock/debris congealed to form the Moon.

Fortuitiously, the massive planet Jupiter is positioned in our Solar Sytem to now be the Earth's protector..It's massive gravitational pull attracts objects that could otherwise threaten the Earth. Without Jupiter, the Earth would be the target of many stray bits of heavenly bodies that infest our system.
Another defence is the Earth's atmosphere, which, thro' friction, burns up many objects before they reach the Earth's surface.
The Moon, essentially doesn't have an atmosphere - hence the meteoric craters on its surface.

I will set a test later...I expect you to get at least 65 percent!!

3 October 2012 at 23:34

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)