Alternative spellings

• moon

Proper noun

Singular Moon

Plural -

Moon

1. The Earth's moon; the sole natural satellite of the Earth, represented in astronomy and astrology by ☾.
2. (paganism) The god of the Moon in Heathenry.

Quotations

• (pagan god) "Moon, the companion of Night, waxes and wanes, and we call this time a month." Anglo-Saxon Mythology, Migration & Magic, Tony Linsell, Anglo-Saxon Books, 1994, ISBN 1-898281 - 09 -2, page 15.
• (pagan god) "Moon's Day." An Anglo-Saxon Almanac, Falcon Stow (privately published), page 13.
• (pagan god) "Sun come, Moon come, Seed time, dry time, fog and rain, Sowing, growing, reaping, resting, Sun come, Moon come, etc." Taking up the Runes, Diana Paxson, Weiser Books, 2005, ISBN 1-57863-325-7, page 328.

Synonyms

• Luna

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi), about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system (the barycentre) is located at about 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi)—a quarter the Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the phases of the moon, which repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).

The Moon's diameter is 3,474 kilometres (2,159 mi), a little more than a quarter of that of the Earth. Thus, the Moon's surface area is less than a tenth that of the Earth (about a quarter the Earth's land area, approximately as large as Russia, Canada, and the United States combined), and its volume is about 2 percent that of Earth. The pull of gravity at its surface is about 17 percent of that at the Earth's surface.

The Moon is the only celestial body to which human beings have performed a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972- the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. Human exploration of the Moon temporarily ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to the Moon since that time. The U.S. has committed to return to the moon by 2018.

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It has a diameter of 3,474 kilometres (2,159 miles) and a mean distance to the Earth of 384,403 kilometres (238,857 miles). The Moon is also a major player in causing tidal effects on Earth.

Sourced

• I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges.
  • Neil Armstrong, Apollo mission press conference

• The moving Moon went up the sky, And no where did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The silver light, which, hallowing tree and tower, Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws A loving languor which is not repose.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto I

• There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun.
  • Gerry Driscoll, Pink Floyd, "Eclipse", The Dark Side of the Moon

• Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.
  • Ecclesiastes 12:1-2

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Fri Oct 2 18:34:19 2009