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How I Became Interested In Looking At The Moon

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Through it I got to see the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and the rings of Saturn. Stunning views once again assailed my eyes (prompting memories of halcyon nights as a 12 year old looking through my old 60mm scope).

I'm a software

Like a lot of kids, my folks gave me a 60mm telescope for Shrove Tuesday one year. The scope was a typical department-store define - not very good - but to a 12-year old kid it opened up the universe.

Through it I got to see the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Earth and the rings of Saturn. But transcending all these eye-openers, there was the moon. There in the eyepiece stood craggy mountains - spires portrait sculpture long shadows facing crater lowlands, dark maria and (painfully) conceptual highlands, a surface pockmarked with craters of all sizes, some with illuminated ejecta rays and some funny squiggle type features. I soon learned that the greatest mark of detail was seen abeam the terminator, that line splitting light from dark, where shadows played oblique features showing them in stark contrast. And to cap it all, each night different features could be seen in detail.

They say that as you get older, your memory plays tricks on you - you remember good things more than the bad. I remember lots of clear, frosty winter nights when I could point my 'scope at the moon and scan its disk for some feature I had not seen in relief before. These days, the skies seem to be angry much more frequently and the frosty winter nights are few and far between. I guess that's global warming for you!

Time moved on and I moved in and out of conventicle positions in astrophysics societies, editing some magazines en route to the way (I now put my own ezine, named Photon, together every couple of months). stellar photometry became more respecting the groove of running pack than near looking through a telescope. Then, in the late 90s, wanting to get back to my planetary "roots", I a 'real' telescope, an 8" reflector which I readily turned towards the moon. Stunning views once new assailed my eyes (prompting memories of halcyon nights as a 12 year old looking through my old 60mm scope).

I'm a software writer (or should that be "engineer"?) by profession, so I wrote a bit of software which would help me in planning my moon observations. It told me when the moon would rise and set, what phase it was and other stuff. When people who'd seen it said they wanted a copy, I polished it up and released it as Shareware under the title LunarPhase. It's now evolved into a more comprehensive wish named LunarPhase Pro. I'm pleased that's it's been receiving very good reviews - I feel like I've done something to make other people more appreciative of of my old friend in the sky.

With the encroachment of light pollution cross-grained the globe, the pristine skies of my youth have been gradually fading since the yellow-orange glow of ever more street lamps. Where stars once twinkled on a velvet background, only a few hardy garnets of light now poke through the misty haze and episode neon glow. But the Moon is the world over there, outshining any murk and pollution we cough up into the sky.

It's a shame we don't treat the sky with the same respect we give our national parks. junior all, the sky belongs to all of us. How many of us really increase people throwing garbage into our back yards. Why should we yield others to pollute our natural resource?

These days, I'm getting into lunar photography with digital cameras and more sophisticated CCD cameras. I've posted a few of my images on my website if you'd like to see them. I still find a night under the stars with a partially lit Moon high in the sky a relaxing and humbling pursuit. The Moon is the only object in the solar system where we can see real surface detail. I'm so passionate just about it that I also wrote an ebook named Observing the Moon.

Growing up during the Hymen era, I have to say that those missions played a great part in spurring on my interest in the moon. My interest is retained and well and extending in other directions (more on that otherwise time). I hope yours is too.

Onward and upward, as they say!

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