Sturgeon Moon - Supermoon - Blue Moon - phases and Moon missions

Today 19.8.2024 (Avani 3) is Avittam Nakshathiram – Pournami – Yajur Upakarma.  Unlikely that you would have hit the bed – if not, do come out in the open and enjoy the beautiful Full moon, though there are too many clouds.  It was a very hot day and now in the evening there are dark clouds and Moon is playing hide & seek !!

 

The full moon of date, August 19, 2024 is a Blue Moon supermoon, and is the first of four supermoons in a row. It will occur at 11:55 PM in Chennai, India. The moon will be 15 days old and 99.7% full. 

The moon, our closest neighbor has been a popular destination. Pioneer 0 was launched on Thor missile number 127 at 12:18:00 GMT on 17 August 1958 by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division, only 4 minutes after the scheduled launch time.  NASA and numerous other countries have attempted to send missions to the moon, and even a few humans have made the journey. The first generation of robotic moon explorers helped prepare for the Apollo moon landings, which sent a few American male astronauts to the surface between 1969 and 1972. Now NASA is leading a new consortium of international space agencies and companies for a new round of landings under the Artemis program. Meanwhile, numerous landers, rovers and other robotic explorers have sent back information about the moon.  More than 140 missions launched to the moon. A small number of them had astronauts on board.  Nine human missions were launched to the moon between 1968 and 1972, with some people flying on more than one mission. As for moonwalkers, 12 American male astronauts walked on the moon between 1968 and 1972.

 

Moon phases reveal the passage of time in the night sky. Some nights when we look up at the moon, it is full and bright; sometimes it is just a sliver of silvery light. These changes in appearance are the phases of the moon. As the moon orbits Earth, it cycles through eight distinct phases. The four primary phases of the moon (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter) occur about a week apart, with the full moon its most dazzling stage. While the moon has four primary phases each month, it is always changing. As you observe the moon during the month, watch as it grows from a new moon to a first quarter moon. As it grows, it is known as a waxing moon, and gradually increases from a waxing "crescent" (for its shape into the first quarter moon. As it continues to brighten, it takes on an oblong, or "gibbous," shape until it reaches the full moon stage. Then it will repeat the steps in reverse as it heads back to a new moon.   

The August full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon. This year's August full moon will also be a seasonal Blue Moon,   according to NASA. It will also be the first of four supermoons in a row this year. A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth in its orbit. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and closer than normal, although the difference is hard to spot with the naked eye. The full moon is the point where the entire face of the moon is illuminated by the sun as seen from Earth.   

Of the moon, we always see a hemisphere and a little more because its rotation is synchronous and blocked by the tide. This means that one lunar rotation on its axis corresponds to the time of revolution around Earth, equal to 29.5 days. On a daily basis, the moon appears to move eastward in the sky by 12°, and this determines different angles of its illumination by the sun. As it orbits Earth, the moon will show different illuminated parts based on the angle to the sun and hence the phases of a lunation. Although these lighting variations are gradual, traditionally, only four moments are identified, which are also useful for regulating the ancient calendars.

The term "supermoon" was first coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, as "either a new or full moon that occurs when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth" according to NASA. Full supermoons are the biggest and brightest full moons of the year, appearing approximately 30% brighter and 14% larger than usual. Though this may sound like a lot, it's quite hard to spot the difference with the unaided eye, unless you're a seasoned moon-watcher.   

There are two types of "Blue Moon," but neither has anything to do with the color. A seasonal Blue Moon refers to the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. This is the traditional definition of a Blue Moon and the type we will see rise on Aug. 19.  The second type of Blue Moon — which arose from a misunderstanding of the original definition — simply refers to the second full moon in a single calendar month. Today, this monthly "Blue Moon" concept is accepted as an alternative definition rather than a mistake, according to Time and Date.  

The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth and fly past another astronomical body. Soon after that the first Moon landing and the first landing on any extraterrestrial body was performed by Luna 2, which intentionally impacted the Moon on 14 September 1959.  Pioneer 0 (also known as Able 1) was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer. It was designed and operated by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division as the first spacecraft in the Pioneer program and was the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country,  but the rocket failed shortly after launch.   

Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961.

 

Apollo 17 (Dec 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans orbited above.  The emphasis on science meant the inclusion of a number of new experiments, including a biological experiment containing five mice that was carried in the command module.

Interesting !
 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
19.8.2024