#75

Moon

marginal nightlight

mid-between crescent and full

a perfect half moon

photo by Bablu Mrong

Tonight I looked up and saw a perfect half moon. I live without much light pollution, so it was half-lighting my way as I took garbage out after dark. I feel lucky to live where we can see a sky full of stars and the moon doesn’t compete with streetlights and signage.

If you haven’t lately, I highly recommend making a date with the night sky and going to the nearest dark place.

Here are two fun (and almost unbelievable) facts that I learned a while back. How many stars do you think you can see on a clear night? The number has to be huge, right? Nope. An average human can see about 3000 stars at night.

What? That boggles my mind that the number is so small. Here another: If you draw an imaginary line across the sky at night, what are the odds that your line will intersect a point of light? The probability of a line intersecting a star or a planet is effectively ZERO.

Again, WHAT? Yep, it’s true. While the sky may appear to be crowded with stars, they are actually minuscule points of light separated by vast, empty distances.

I have lots of other fun ways to feel really small in the universe. I’ll dole them out at other appropriate times. -grin-

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Write a haiku about the moon, stars, or space. Or tell a story about enjoying all that vastness. Share in the comments.

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