One of the astronomical spectacles this year will occur on the
night of January 20th. A total eclipse of the moon
will begin at around 8 P.M. CST with the moon being entirely within
the shadow of the earth from 10:02-11:22 P.M. CST. Winter air, being
relatively free of moisture, can make viewing this eclipse
downright awesome, assuming that the sky will be clear.
Many of you could write a book based upon your many wonderful
experiences related to the moon. So could I! Growing up in
Kewaunee, we boys spent countless hours at the Lake Michigan
beach watching the moon slowly rise above the horizon. How we
enjoyed those quiet, private, precious times.
One of my most memorable "moon" experiences occurred
in early November of 1971. I had met Charlotte Koch that
previous August at the Ridges Sanctuary and began courting her,
my problem being that I had to drive all the way to Milwaukee,
her hometown, to do so! It was while driving home after
midnight, my "head in the clouds," (I still had not
proposed marriage to her) that I encountered the moon slowly
rising above Lake Michigan. The very next morning I wrote the
following story, over 28 years ago.
"A waning butter-colored last quarter moon,
breathtakingly close, has inched its way up into the clear cold
November nighttime sky, lacing the fleecy clouds riding the lake
horizon beneath it with silvery edgings. My route home from
Milwaukee has taken me north of Algoma along the dark and lonely
county highway paralleling and hugging the Lake Michigan shore,
riding high on top of the steep clay banks. Now and then the
road dips lower and closer to the lake suddenly opening the long,
shimmering, mirror-studded ribbon of moon reflection, brilliant
and choppy away from the shore, glassy smooth with gentle swells
just off shore, protected there from the west wind by the lake
bank.
"Orion, broadcasting winter, lies low on his side just
above Lake Michigan to the east. High above, over his head,
twinkling – are the Pleiades, Seven Sisters to many people. Home
now, I stand outside the back kitchen door for the longest time
looking out over the moonlit meadow and spruces, listening,
thinking, wishing, drinking in the brisk evening beauty. I
purposely breathe slowly and easily, as quietly as I can. Not
one single man-made sound – not one! Indescribably beautiful!
"There is something magical and captivating about this
kind of sky, such that I don’t want to miss admiring a single
one, just as though suddenly the moon and stars might go into
hiding and never again decorate the night sky. No more starlight
nights! Could you possibly imagine such a happening?
"Ask your friends, your family, your teachers, ‘Which
planets dot the visible heavens this night, or now about that
brilliant star hanging low in the east now (before sunrise!), or
which constellations pattern the dark fall sky?’ Chances are
your answers will be few, if any.
"Suppose that a new ‘star schedule’ came to be, that for
some reason or other the stars and the moon would come into view
only once a year, or five years, or ten years! How the people
would study and plan and prepare for this awesome spectacle.
Perhaps millions of TV’s, thanks to this stupendous event, would
be left dark, unwatched; people would be ‘unglued’ from them!
"The quarter moon has climbed above the maples now,
smiling in its ‘eye-winking’ shape down upon the lake causing the
lower rangelight to stand out clearly. The bay appears to be
alive in its brilliance. It has been said that the amateur who
observes the moon phases systematically, night after night, is of
no ordinary breed. Study the revolution and rotation of the
earth and the revolution of the moon around it and you will
discover that the moon appears to rise about fifty minutes, on
the average, later each evening. It is already rising at
midnight just one week after full moon…
"Ancient Eskimos looked at the moon and its reflected
light as a man, so potent in its maleness that a young woman,
drinking of the moonlit water upon which this powerful virile god
had showered his light, could become pregnant. The gift of
silver to the race of man, originally in the form of shimmering
tears, came from moonlit waters, or so the Peruvian Indians
thought.
"Needless to say, modern man has erased for all time,
scores of these beautiful age-old legends and moon-mysteries with
his moon walks. But this will not change the spiritual splendor
of the moon rising over the lake horizon, nor will it dampen the
lonely melancholy howling and yipping of some great wild wolf of
the north, lured into song, too, by the golden beauty of the moon
poking up over the spires of the boreal forest.
"Don’t cast the moon, or the stars, out of your lives.
Study! Learn of their splendid intricacies and occurrences in
the night sky. Plan your calendar to regularly include this show
of shows, free of charge, increasing with excitement from night
to night as your knowledge grows. Perhaps you, too, will not
want to miss a single show. And somebody up there will like you!
A full moon over Lighthouse Point in Baileys Harbor
More information on this topic is available at:
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This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 01/14/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
