Another full moon will kick off May
We’re approaching another full moon this week on Friday to kick off May, but that’s just the first full moon in May. There’ll be another full moon to end the month over Butler on May 31.
By modern definition, that’ll be a Blue Moon, but more on that in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, the full moon this Friday is considered the official May full moon, and like all full moons, it has many names. Probably the best-known name is the “flower moon,” for obvious reasons now that we’re well into spring around here. Other names would include: the “budding moon,” “leaf budding moon” and “planting moon,” all of which touch on the beginning of the spring season.
As a lifetime stargazer, I’m not always on good terms with full moons. That’s because they hog up the night sky with all of their light, making it very difficult to see all but the brighter stars.
Most of the time, though, I just love being out under the full moonlight, and there’s much to observe on our lunar friend.
On the moon's surface there are dark patches of various sizes called “maria,” which is Latin for sea. A very, very long time ago astronomers thought these dark splotches on the moon were large bodies of water. That’s why lunar maria have names like the Ocean of Storms and the Sea of Tranquillity.
History was made in July 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to land on the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module, on the Western edge of the Sea of Tranquillity.
In a way, though, the moon’s dark areas are seas and oceans, not of water, but rather of cooled volcanic rock.
Over 4 million years ago, a little after the moon was born, the solar system was pretty chaotic. In all likelihood, the moon was created when a giant asteroid plunged into the Earth. The debris thrown out into space from this colossal collision eventually coalesced gravitationally to form our lunar companion.
Shortly after that, more bombardment from smaller asteroids produced large cracks on the moon’s surface, allowing volcanic lava to well up and fill the asteroids’ large impressions. Over time the lava cooled, becoming the maria that we see today. The maria looks much darker than the rest of the moon because its iron-rich content doesn’t reflect sunlight as well.
It's that contrast between the maria and the rest of the moon that can make moon-watching so much fun. No doubt you’ve already seen the man on the moon, but there’s a lot more. There’s the woman on the moon, a rabbit, a squirrel eating a nut, Wilma Flintstone from the Flintstones and many more.
One of my favorites is the poodle on the moon. As the moon rises, the poodle is found on the upper right portion of the disk. Once you see it, you’ll never forget it. Incidentally, the Apollo 11 landing site is located in the upper portion of the poodle’s right leg.
It’s a really good thing we have the moon to gaze at, because if we didn’t, our planet’s climate could really be a mess! The moon’s gravity keeps the tilt of the Earth’s axis stable. If the moon weren’t in our sky, Jupiter would cause wild gyrations of the Earth’s axis, and our climate would be totally out of control!
The moon has also dramatically slowed down the Earth’s rotation. Way back when, it took less than six hours for Earth to rotate once around its axis. Talk about a fast day!
Gradually, and I mean very gradually, the moon is moving away from the Earth. There’s certainly no need to panic because the moon’s speed away from Earth is a little less than an inch-and-a-half per year. Moonlight will feel right for years and years to come!
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
