Hi to all on this lunar eclipse eve. I WON’T be getting up at 2am to watch the eclipse, no, but I can just feel the excitement sizzling in the air in contemplation. This morning when I went out for my tinkle, I saw the moon. Full and orangey, like Garfield the cat after a tray of lasagna. It was mesmerizing. unexplainable, like many of nature’s wonders. Let’s shed a little light on ”bella luna”.
The Moon is Earth‘s only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, although its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to coal. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have since ancient times made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, the calendar, art and mythology. The Moon’s gravitational influence produces the ocean tides and the minute lengthening of the day.
The Moon has been the subject of many works of art, literature, music and the inspiration for countless others.
The Moon has a long association with insanity and irrationality; the words lunacy and loony are derived from the Latin name for the Moon, Luna. Philosophers argued that the full Moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, believing that the brain, which is mostly water, must be affected by the Moon and its power over the tides, but the Moon’s gravity is too slight to affect any single person. Even today, people insist that admissions to psychiatric hospitals, traffic accidents, homicides or suicides increase during a full Moon, although there is no scientific evidence to support such claims.
SO… wh
y do dogs howl at the moon? Hell, why do dogs lick their butts? You’d think i’d know, but I really don’t. YAHOO Answers says (about the howling – not the butt-licking) Why dogs howl:
The ancestor of the domestic dog is the wolf. Wolves hunt in packs and individual wolves may go scouting a large distance from the pack. The high-pitched sound of howling travels over great distances and is therefore the way pack members keep in contact with each other. Why dogs howl on moonlit nights: Because it is light. It is as simple as that. What else you wanna know???
E dog OUT… Merry Christmas if I don’ t get a chance to blog before.
