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:
“Moonwalker” is a musical film from 1988 starring Michael Jackson. The movie is a wild and trendy mixture of music videos, live concert recordings, action scenes, science fiction effects and cartoons – so less of a classical movie, but more so an anthology. The plot revolves around how Michael saves three children (i.e. played by Sean Lennon, John Lennon’s son) and the children of the world from the deadly intrigues of the villain Mr. Big (played by Joe Pesci).
Who doesn’t know this movie, a classic amongst romantic comedies? Shot in 1993, with Tom Hanks as the architect Sam Baldwin and Meg Ryan as the journalist Annie Reed, who do not know each other but are still able to find one another thanks to Sam’s son Jonah, who recognizes that Sam and Annie belong together and for that, he leaves no stone unturned.
On the movie poster, you can see the full moon, just above Meg Ryan and we watched this movie for the 137th time to find out whether the full moon is also visible during the movie – wrong! Neither in the scene where Sam talks to the psychologist on the radio for the first time, while Annie listens in the car, nor in the closing scene in New York, and on the Empire State Building we can see the moonlight shining, although this would have certainly been a gain. Also with reference to the title and the addressed topic of sleeplessness, this would have been an obvious approach.
Our Moon consists of rock, which was formed newly during its creation through a collision between the Earth and another planet, around 4.5 billion years ago. Lunar maria were created through meteoroid impacts, which can be seen as dark spots if observed from Earth.
A small amount of these rocks are on Earth. One part stems from a variety of moon missions (Apollo and Luna), the other from meteorites that struck the Earth as fragments. If you add up the registered mass of these rocks, you’ll end up with 738 kg (1,627 pounds). Which is actually »just a grain of rice« in comparison to the 81,000,000,000,000 kg that our Moon weighs.
There are probably few painters who made use of the full moon in their paintings as often as Marc Chagall (1887–1985), the French artist of Russian-Jewish descent, who was regarded as »le poète« (the poet) amongst painters, due to his symbolic shapes and colors.
Chagall lived for almost a century and if one can classify his style at all, then it would have to be expressionism. He worked in Russia, France (primarily Paris) and in the US (primarily New York) and was on an inner and outer journey throughout his life.
This is about how to differentiate the waxing moon from the waning moon in the sky. »Waxing« is known to be the lunar phase between the new moon and the full moon (meaning the time when the crescent increases in size), whereas »waning« is known to be the lunar phase between the full moon and the new moon (the time when the crescent decreases in size). In order to remember on which side the curve is, here are some neat mnemonics.
Everyone knows that the sun is much larger than the moon and much further away from earth. In this very context lies a fascinating fact: both celestial bodies appear to be of similar size on the firmament, when observed from earth. Which implies that the sun has to be as many times bigger than the moon, as it is further away from the earth than the moon from the earth …
Even though the title of this article may suggest it, the following is not about James Bond, the famous secret agent of Her Majesty, but about another legend, which supposedly happened in Wiltshire in southern England.
A gang of alcohol smugglers tried to hide barrels in a pond of a village from the eyes of the official custom officers. When they were caught by them one night at the shore and were asked to explain themselves, the smugglers tried to rake the surface of the water in order to make the view onto the barrels more difficult. They then claimed that they were trying to fish a round cheese out of the pond and pointed at the reflection of the full moon in the water. The officers thought them to be insane and simply granted them to continue as pleased.
The »sunfish« is called »moonfish« in many languages. It is the biggest and heaviest bony fish in the world, weighing up to 2,500 kg and showing off up to 3 m length and 4 m height! It can grow over 100 years old. Its Latin name »mola mola« derives from its shape, which reminds of a »millstone«, but apparently, also the Moon was the force behind the naming:
Lions mostly hunt in the dark, as predators have more of an advantage if it is as dark as possible. Hence, the moonlight is a disturbing factor, because it makes the predators easily detectable by their prey. And when the full moon is actually in the sky, it then so happens, that the lions occasionally come away empty-handed. Thus commences a time at full moon (and shortly before), where the lions begin to starve and hence their urge to hunt increases.
After USA and the Soviet Union, China will be the third nation in the world travelling to the Moon with their space program, and they will probably land there with the astronauts as well in the long term. At the moment, an unmanned spaceship »Chang’e-3« (moon fairy) is on its way to the Moon since 1st December 2013, planning to land in the Mare Ibrium on 14th December and supposed to transport a rover for research purposes of the Moon’s surface. The vehicle is called »Yutu« (jade rabbit).