Lunar exploration

On Thursday, the Odysseus lunar lander successfully soft-landed near the moon’s south pole, accomplishing a feat that had not been attempted by any vehicle launched from the United States since the Apollo program https://pbase.com/britestar/image/169510796 ended over 50 years ago. Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission also marked the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the moon amid a renewed international dash for the lunar surface.

“The nice thing to kind of dream about when you look up at the moon right now is how much renewed activity there is internationally,” Rachel Klima (lunar expert with Johns Hopkins University) said. “We’re basically opening up a new era of lunar exploration. … As these different companies start to land on the moon, we’re going to be able to learn much, much more and really have this whole new world — economic world and scientific world — opened up to us.”

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February’s full moon is known as the "Snow Moon" (named because heavy snowfall normally occurs in North America in February). On average, February is the United States’ snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service. Today, the full moon peaked at 6:30 a.m. CT Saturday, according to EarthSky. My image above was shot just after midnight on February 24th, about 6 hours before then. However, with unseasonably warm temperatures, there was no snow on the ground nor in the forecast.

Full moon phase occurs when the moon, Earth and the sun are in alignment, in that order. February’s full moon occurred when the moon was at its farthest point from Earth in its elliptical orbit, known as the apogee, Klima said. The micromoon will also be dimmer than the moon typically looks by about 30%, according to EarthSky.

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Despite its smaller size, the Snow Moon 2024 also signals the start of the Lantern Festival, which is part of the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Lantern Festival celebrates the first full moon of the Chinese New Year https://pbase.com/britestar/image/174339102 & starts on its 15th day. To the Chinese, tonight's full moon marks the departure of winter and the beginning of the spring season. People light lanterns to symbolize driving out darkness and bringing hope to the coming year. At our house, I lit candles this evening and once again photographed the moon. Meanwhile, the weather here has been "Springlike" for most of February, with dramatically above average temperatures. The next three days are supposed to hit all-time record highs for the month of February.

Guess our resident groundhog https://pbase.com/britestar/image/174319171 was right about an early Spring here. I think the Algonquin name of the "Groundhog Moon" certainly seems to fit the February full moon this year. Three of the adult groundhogs, wintering together under our back deck, are out of hibernation and actively grazing on sprouting grass. Winter seems to be over. The Silver Maple trees (normally flowering in mid to late March) have already been in flower for about a week to 10 days this year. That's very early. And during the day today, the sunbathing groundhogs were moonlit.