The Moon

[KERRSURF]

Time: 3 am
place: isle of seil, argyll
spotted: just about everything. I was called out to a site and as it's in the middle of nowhere, there is absolutely no light pollution. I saw shooting stars, big stars, little stars, stars you can't normally see... In fact the sky was full of thousands of em!. I think I saw Venus, but in not sure,anyway it was incredible... Coupled with watching two eagles eat roadkill yesterday, it was a day of great visual delight.

First time I saw this I Lay on my back for a good 2 hours just looking up in awe.
most people never get to see the skies this way.

[_cj_]

First time I saw this I Lay on my back for a good 2 hours just looking up in awe.
most people never get to see the skies this way.

yes it's very humbling
regards,

alex

[Nostromo]

Just tunned in.
There was a large asteroid that skimmed our planet just a few years ago partially entering the earths atmosphere, so thats that one done.
As far as I know the solar flare cycle is a nine year cycle next at its peak in 2011. One to watch out for.
The moon is moving away from us. this is due to a combination of, in simple terms, the sling shot effect of of the moons rotation around the earth which is slowed by gravity and the fact that we are in an expanding universe where everything in moving away from everything. If the moon was to move so far away that we no longer felt the effects of its gravity then the world would end but the sun will become a red giant and swallow up the earth long before this happens so dont worry.
The end of the world in 2012 is a mis representation of the end stop date of the Myan callendar which accurately predicts the alignement of the sun with the imaginary equator of our galaxy as seen from earth, a normal and regular event. Not the devestating, one off, world ending, planetary alignement as described by some scare mongerers.
So there you go, yes we had a big looking moon one day but the world is not going to end as yet but humanity may come to an end quite soon as we seem to be the most destructive force having any noticable effect on anything. We aren't quite capable of destroying a planet but quite good at destroying anything that lives on one. The planet will continue to do what it does for a long time after we have all failed to sustain our own existance.

[dieselboy]

The Sun has an 11 year cycle. Well, 11 years for the solar maximum and minimum, but the true cycle is 22 years as for each 11 years the polarity is reversed.
I understand that the gravity of the Moon has an effect on anything containing water pretty much, so therefore all living things and the tides! )and probably the liquid core of the earth / volcanoes and earthquakes could be related. But how would the world end if it dissapeared? I suppose the Earth would cool down a lot, and there could be less seismic activity.

[Nostromo]

Yes the moon's gravity has an effect on all bodies of liquid including the earths core and i also understand that it is what causes cucumbers to bend.
The earth would die without it as there would be no moving of the tides. The sea would become stagnant and die. The oxygen released from the oceans would be no more. The weather systems would stall, rain would cease, all would become desert. Also the gravity has a stabalising effect on the earths axis, without it the earth would tip over and wobble about. the magnetic poles would shift about and the weather would again be thrown into turmoil.
Ther would never have been any life on earth without the stabalising effect of the moon.
Imagine this. For life to exist on a planet it would have to be the right distance from a suitably sized star, have a suitably sised moon and an adequate supply of water.
Not only do we seem to have all these things but our planet, moon and star are all of suitable diameters and distances apart for the moon to totally eclipse the sun at just a point in time when the moon has moved to a suitable distance from the earth for this effect to take place (given that it is moving further away by 10cm per year) at just the right time for us to have evolved enough to be able to not also see it happen but also understand it.
How does that work then???