Mare Orientale visible at the moment..., ...and spotted and photographed from Kendal this morning Options

[Stu]

Managed to spot and photograph Mare Orientale this morning from Kendal... must have been -4 or -5 deg C but worth it

http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2012/12/0...ientale-spotted

[bkellysky]

I finally found my Mare Orientale photos.
Back in August 2009, I used my Canon A40, held up to the eyepiece of my 200mm Dobsonian telescope. Settings: F 4.8, 1/250 second, 16mm lens.

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[DFinfrock]

Stu, I really loved your blog post. This part was especially thought-provoking:

"Wow… imagine that… imagine if the Moon actually looked like that in our sky… how would our religions and faiths have been shaped if the rising Full Moon had looked like a big, bloated, bloodshot eye staring down at us from the heavens…?"

[Chmee]

"Wow… imagine that… imagine if the Moon actually looked like that in our sky… how would our religions and faiths have been shaped if the rising Full Moon had looked like a big, bloated, bloodshot eye staring down at us from the heavens…?"

I agree, that picture of what the moon would look like in our sky if turned around is almost... shocking. Thanks for that great post.

[Ian R]

If the 'Eastern Sea' were visible from Earth, quite a few images in popular culture would have looked rather different over the years . . .

[Phil Stooke]

Without a telescope it would only look like a dot, Mare Crisium-sized, not very dramatic.

But not to worry - the ancient Egyptian symbol of the eye of Horus was thought of as being visible on the Moon - Mare Imbrium was the eye, surrounded by a lighter circle (from Gruithuisen to Plato, the Alps, Apennines, then the bright ejecta of Copernicus, Kepler and Aristarchus), and another dark ring (Frigoris, serenitatis, etc, back to Procellarum). The traditional Eye of Horus had a dark shading towards where the falcon's beak would be - it's Mare Nubium - and a ragged or feathery extension facing away from that - the eastern maria. Many depictions are stylized, but some are detailed enough to see the pattern properly. The mythology associated with Horus makes the lunar connection very clear.

So a major religion was partly shaped by the notion of the Moon being the eye of a god. But they didn't build their own rockets to go look at it.

Phil

[stevesliva]

So a major religion was partly shaped by the notion of the Moon being the eye of a god. But they didn't build their own rockets to go look at it.

Well, that's no fun. I thought Optimus Prime was up there dancing 'round a monolith because the Egyptians sent them there through a stargate or something along those lines.