Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) is considered one of the first movie stars ever and made film history with his acting and his works. He is also one of the few artists who managed the transition from silent films to sound films.
Because of using archetypal imagery and symbols in his films, it is natural that the moon could also play a part somewhere. We found four references:
Have you ever seen a face or shape of an animal in passing by clouds? This tendency of our perception to find structures within an image or a pattern, is called pareidolia (derives from Greek eidolon = picture). Essentially, this is a misperception where we see objects changing subjectively. But this can also be so much fun and inspire our fantasy to search for these shapes and to find them. Children, in particular, are known to be true masters of this game.
Photography had not yet been invented when the British painter J. M. William Turner (1775–1851) created his painting »Fishermen at Sea« in 1796, where he depicts a nightly scenery at a tempestuous sea, which is lit by the full moon midst heavy clouds. This painting was the first exhibited oil painting by the then 21 year-old Turner and marked the beginning of a great career.
»Moonstruck« is a romantic comedy from 1987, where next to Cher and Nicholas Cage, the full moon plays a leading part. It can be seen countless times in the film, in the night sky, quite differently compared to »Sleepless in Seattle« for example, where you can only see it on the movie poster. The word »moonstruck« in the title, refers little to the subject of sleepwalking, but rather to the fact that human behavior can be quite peculiar at times during the full moon.
The medium-format cameras by the Swedish manufacturer Hasselblad, enjoy a legendary reputation and were – at least back then – probably the best cameras in the world. Not surprising that NASA chose exactly this brand during their equipment selection for their Moon missions. At that time, everything revolved around photographic quality of taking the pictures and moreso, around the reliability of the cameras. Back then, you did not have the opportunity to immediately examine whether a photograph turned out well, because all material could be developed only after the return to Earth. So, with regards to cameras there was the need to hedge one’s bets – inconceivable, if those photos would have turned out a complete flop.
We are looking again at China, where next to the moon festival in autumn, an event is celebrated at the beginning of the year, which is also connected to the full moon: the Lantern Festival (»Yuanxiao«). This celebration is traditionally held on the 15th day of the first moon month of the old Chinese calendars and therefore coincides (more or less exactly) with the full moon. The Lantern Festival indicates the end of the Chinese New Year ceremonies.
We have already reported about the subject “Sleeping at the full moon” with the insight that the phenomenon of a restless or bad sleep around the full moon apparently exists for many people, however, we are groping in the dark if looking at the background. Generally, skeptics claim that insufficient sleep is connected to the fact that the people concerned are more or less aware of it being a full moon and therefore eventuate a self-fulfilled prophecy. Those affected, counter that they often find out afterwards whether it was the full moon or it had not occurred to them yet to make this connection at all.
“Full Moon Silhouettes” is an almost 4 minute real time video by the Australian photographer and visual effect artist Mark Gee, where the rise of the full moon is shown, above Mount Victoria lookout in Wellington (New Zealand). You can see an uncut sequence where the Moon rises from the lower right corner above the horizon, and ascends to the left upper side (because this takes place on the southern hemisphere!). The visitors on the lookout are visible as black silhouettes in front of the yellow Moon and its luna maria.
Frank Frazetta (1928–2010) was an American fantasy and science fiction illustrator and belongs to one of the greatest artists of this genre. With his distinctive style, he was as a great example to an entire generation of artists. His work continues to receive high appreciation, down to the present day.
He began with illustrations of covers for comics and books in the 60’s began (i.e. »Conan the Barbarian« or »Tarzan«), designed movie posters (i.e. »What’s New Pussycat?« or »The Fearless Vampire Killers«) and album covers. In addition, he created a lot of free art work.
Today is Friday 13th and we wanted to take a look at, whether it is considered lucky and what this has to do with the full moon. Interestingly enough, the interpretation of the number 13 has developed in various directions in different countries and cultures and you can find as many examples for bad luck, as much as the ones that promise good luck, albeit diverse interpretations exist.
We would like to turn our attention to two interesting types of light apparitions around the Moon: halos and coronas. Both are optical phenomena in the atmosphere that, if looked at from a physical point of view, come about in different ways and also look dissimilar.
A halo (left picture) develops through refracting ice crystals and creates a clearly defined light ring around the Sun or the Moon, whereas the surface between the celestial body and the ring, almost appears to be empty. Light spots, light arches and pillars can also emerge.