Earth from the Moon

Credit: Image credit: NASA/JSC, Posted on: Monday, 4 October 2004, 06:00 CDT Download full size image

The Moon (or Luna) has occupied a prominent place in myth and folklore throughout human history. From mid-August to mid-October the Moon rises at almost the same time every evening in the northern mid-latitudes. The bright disk of Luna provides enough dependable light at this time of year to allow longer days for harvesting crops—which has lead to the Harvest Moon of numerous songs, stories, paintings and photographs. The Moon also inspired the most ambitious human endeavor to date—landing astronauts on its surface to examine our closest celestial neighbor directly. Where were you on July 16, 1969? If you were alive and sentient that day, you probably were glued to a television set somewhere on the planet—at home with your family, gazing avidly through a storefront window, or gathered with friends at a community center or vacation cottage. This image from Apollo 11 shows the Earth rising over the limb of the Moon much as the Harvest Moon does from our planetary perspective

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