Smiley Moon.

[melatonin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY11kFvK1jQ&lc=gKohuCv6dHr17FlKvb-kvALxC0qOQ6ACjNUDTe8WQ_E


I saw this moon last year on a few occasions. Is this normal? Ive always been fascianted by the sky and have never seen a moon like this in England.
In the 36 years ive been alive ive never seen it before last year. I remember looking into the sky and it sent chills down my spine.

Does anyone here know if this is normal?

 

[mkrnhr]

Hi melatonin,
What is it that you find unusual? The shape of the moon depends on time and observer's location, and where it stands in its different cycles.

 

[SeekingtheTruth]

It sorta looks like the smile of Cheshire the Cat from Alice in Wonderland haha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB1J7cIBW9A&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[melatonin]

Hi mkrnhr,

Ive been looking into the sky my whole life, and ive never seen the moon like this before. The phases are always from left/right, and right/left..... never up/down and down/up, which produces a smiley like this.

This was backed up by my initial reaction when i first saw it last year, as i nearly jumped out of my skin looking at it.

 

[moonfly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY11kFvK1jQ&lc=gKohuCv6dHr17FlKvb-kvALxC0qOQ6ACjNUDTe8WQ_E


I saw this moon last year on a few occasions. Is this normal? Ive always been fascianted by the sky and have never seen a moon like this in England.
In the 36 years ive been alive ive never seen it before last year. I remember looking into the sky and it sent chills down my spine.

Does anyone here know if this is normal?

When my family lived in Puerto Rico, the moon smiled, when we returned to the States, it returned to the position I had known before, a regular semi vertical crescent, etc..

 

[mkrnhr]

Ok I see. It does happen but not very often. The termination line can be horizontal sometimes.
It happens when, according its declination, the moon as seen from a certain location appears to be above the sun when this later goes down the horizon, and thus the illuminated part of the moon appears horizontal like in this video.
There is a better way to explain it (with diagrams) but the point is that it is natural but rare to notice, that it depends on the moon's cinematics and on the observer's location.


Edit: I thought maybe you will find this interesting since these lunar phenomena seem to have some importance to the people who built the megaliths like Stonehenge :)
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill

 

[SeekingtheTruth]

It also reminded me of this paper I read a few months ago entitled " Relative information entropy and Weyl curvature of the inhomogeneous Universe" and also of involuntary memory from Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". _http://findingtimeforproust.blogspot.com/2011/07/swanns-way-combray-pp-53-65-end-chapter.html?m=1. It may not be connected directly to the physical aspects of the moon but maybe it is how we use symbols to process information and "see" the moon? But then again maybe I'm seeing a connection that doesn't exist.

 

[moonfly]

Ok I see. It does happen but not very often. The termination line can be horizontal sometimes.
It happens when, according its declination, the moon as seen from a certain location appears to be above the sun when this later goes down the horizon, and thus the illuminated part of the moon appears horizontal like in this video.
There is a better way to explain it (with diagrams) but the point is that it is natural but rare to notice, that it depends on the moon's cinematics and on the observer's location.


Edit: I thought maybe you will find this interesting since these lunar phenomena seem to have some importance to the people who built the megaliths like Stonehenge :)
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing the links.

I've always been fascinated by the moon. When I grew up, kids always had to be indoors by dark, one exception, sit in the front yard where the folks could keep an eye on you.. Booooooring. So we looked up! So a bunch of us kids would lay in the grass and stare at the stars and moon. That follows to today, just me and DH. Anyway, the surprise of a smiling moon was explained by my dad. Hey, we live by the equator, the sky is sideways here. Earth are round, cornbread are square. LOL! Life lesson eh?

So, now I don't know how it could be different in viewing from the same longitude/latitude without an eclipse or something perhaps like lunaton, but dad's explanation was good enough at the time. Now in the mountains, above the city lights, the views are breathtaking. But that old moon just follows you everywhere. ;)