Our closest celestial neighbour has kept us company for at least four billion years and has entertained our imagination in a variety of ways.
It certainly has been involved in our maturation as a species with man's first step on a body beyond our planet during the latter part of the
twentienth century and will, inevitably, be our first stop prior to any sort of manned travel to a further celestial body such as Mars. The
moon has been a great source of education about our own planet's evolutionary history; it has entertained many inquisitive minds from earlier
cultures and generations about the universe in general and man's role in particular; it has enriched the minds of young children taking their
first look through a telescope and continues to impact our lives in ways we may or may not readily recognize including tidal forces and various
natural rhythms and cycles.
Note: The image of the full moon below was taken at the minimum perigee for 2010. For an alternate version which
illustrates subtle detail and form, click here.
Body: Moon Mass: 0.0123 x Earth Mean Eq Diameter: 0.2719 x Earth Distance: 356,790 km Sidereal Rev: 27d 07h 43m 11s Age: 14d 09h 16m Phase: 99.8° Diameter: 34.06' Magnitude: -12.6 Light Time: 0h 0m 1.2s Rukl: N/A |
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Date: Jan 30, 2010 00:31:28 UT+2 Location: Athens, Greece Equipment: AP 160 f/7.5 StarFire EDF AP 1200GTO GEM Canon EOS 350D Baader UV/IR-Cut Filter Exposure(s): 1 x 1/320 sec ISO 100 RAW image format 3456x2304 image size Manual Mode Software: Digital Photo Pro V2.1.1.4 Photoshop CS2 Processing: RAW to TIFF (16-bit) Conv Desaturation Cropping Brightness/Contrast Levels Unsharp Masking Resampling JPG Compression |