The August Moon: A topical article by Dionysis Simopoulos

On the occasion of her full moon in the heart of summer (August 12), APE-MPE republishes a topical article written for the Eugenides Foundation by the late Dionysis Simopoulos about August moon.

Here is the text:

The daily presence of the Moon in the sky as well as the constant change of its illuminated form has always influenced people as seen in their songs, prejudices and dogmatic concepts. Because even though the Moon reflects only 7% of the sunlight that falls on its pitted surface, it is bright enough to cover a large part of the night’s stars with its light. In fact, many traditions, dating back to ancient times, associate the Full Moon of each month with various agricultural works. Take for example the Full Moon of August which even today is considered by many to be brighter and bigger than any other Full Moon of the year, which of course is not correct, since it is simply an optical illusion.

What happens is that during the summer months the Sun is at the highest point of its annual apparent orbit in the sky, while the Moon is relatively closer to the horizon. In this position the Full Moon can be compared to various other features found there, such as trees, antennae and various buildings. In this way the observer’s brain is tricked into believing that the Full Moon is larger, when repeated measurements have proven that the size of the Full Moon does not vary at all from hour to hour.

There is of course a measurable difference in the size of the Moon depending on whether it is at perigee or apogee, which happens once every month. But this has nothing to do with how big it looks when it is close to the horizon, which is due, as we said, solely to an optical illusion.

But there are other similar myths that have been cultivated among the various peoples, among which is the connection of the outbreak of “madness” on the day of the Full Moon. After all, from this myth comes the word “moonlight” and its connection with epilepsy. Statistical studies that have been done repeatedly and have been published in reputable scientific journals (such as the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the Journal of Emergency Nursing, and the Journal of Toxicology and Psychological Report) prove that there is absolutely no connection between human behavior and the Full Moon . It is also a myth that it is heard that on the day of the full moon more children are born or that there are more accidents and the like. Nevertheless, these myths continue to exist and confuse every citizen without any proof at all.

Also take another myth about the coloring of the Full Moon that some people sometimes want it to be “blue”. Under certain conditions there are indeed cases when the Moon’s complexion takes on a bluish color (instead of its normal gray), when there is a large concentration of dust in the atmosphere from a recent and large volcanic eruption, as happened for example with the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883. This phenomenon is so rare that it has remained in the annals as an expression indicative of the meaning of “almost never”.

In this sense, the phrase “Blue Moon” is also used to characterize the existence of two full moons in one month, the second full moon in one month is called a “Blue Moon” even though such a phenomenon, although unusual (since the period from one Full Moon to the next reaches approximately 29.5 days, and to be precise 29.53059 days), it is not particularly rare. February of course, having only 28 or 29 days, is impossible to ever include a “Blue Moon”, while on average a month with two Full Moons occurs once every 2.5 years or so (and to be precise every 2.72 years), which of course cannot be considered particularly rare. In total over the next 40 years we will have 17 months that will include two Full Moons in the same month.

However, it is a fact that the presence of the Moon in the night sky really has no rival, so it is not at all strange that mythology is full of her stories that many identified her with the goddess Artemis. When she projected her graceful face in the silver glow to the sky, her beauty made the stars pale, while the imagination of the ancients likened the moon’s rays to the swift and pointed arrows of Artemis. The pure beautiful virgin, the hunting goddess, was for Homer the model of female beauty. To the Moon they also attributed the nightly dew and the rains, so they called Artemis “Rivers” and worshiped her near springs and lakes where they were believed to bathe with the Nymphs away from the profane gaze of men.

Also according to Greek mythology Selene was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, sister of Helios and Zeus, and mother of Orion with father Helios. Like the Sun, the Moon also had its own chariot drawn by oxen or horses or even deer, while it is also worth noting that in the Classical period, the worship of the Moon had weakened, because they believed that the worship of the heavenly bodies was a feature of the barbarians.

From ancient times, even in this visible face of the Moon, various forms and shapes could be distinguished that literally fascinated the people of Earth for thousands of years. Some thought it was a rabbit. Still others that it was a frog. While most said they could make out a human face: a man on the Moon. In Scandinavian countries two children were seen carrying a bucket of water between them, while in Greenland young girls were forbidden to look at the Full Moon because they believed they would get pregnant.

Of course, many of the classical Greek philosophers had realized early on that the different illumination of the Moon’s regions was due to the irregularities of its terrain. Thales of Miletus, for example, believed that our satellite was made of the same materials as the Earth, while Democritus argued that the differences in its illumination were due to the existence of mountains and valleys. And so since the classical era, the ancient Greek philosophers were able to clarify many of the mysteries of the Moon, among which was the mechanism of its phases.

The ancient philosophers understood that the light of the Moon was nothing more than the reflection of the Sun’s rays on its surface. But because the Sun’s light illuminates different areas of its Earth-facing side every day, we see the Moon constantly changing shape depending on how it is seen from Earth. So when the Moon is in the same direction as the Sun, it turns its unilluminated hemisphere towards us, so we say we have a New Moon or Numania. Over the days, the Moon shifts in its orbit and so from Earth we begin to see more and more of its illuminated hemisphere.

When its distance from the Sun is 90 degrees, it appears to be illuminated by 1/2, and this phase is called the first quarter. The movement of the Moon around the Earth continues until it is in opposition to the position of the Sun, that is, it is opposite the Sun with the Earth in the middle, so we see from the Earth its entire illuminated hemisphere and we say that we have a Full Moon. Then the Moon rises when the Sun sets. But time goes on and the Moon continues its movement until it finds itself in the phase of the last quarter. Finally, the Moon comes back into conjunction with the Sun, so we again have Numania or New Moon.

From one session to the next, to complete all the phases of the Moon, it takes approximately 29.5 days, and to be precise 29 days 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.86 seconds. This time is called a synodic month and it is the period of time between two successive full moons or two successive New Moon phases, from which our calendar month was born. So it is not at all strange that the first calendars were based on a cycle of lunar months.

But there is another “month” called a “sidereal month”, and it is the actual time of a complete revolution of the Moon around the Earth, since it measures the time period between two successive passages of the Moon in front of a given star. This movement becomes apparent as the Moon’s position among the stars changes from night to night. This time is approximately 27 days, to be exact 27 days 7 hours, 43 minutes and 11.5 seconds.

The reason for the longer duration of the synodic month compared to the sidereal month is quite simple: In the course of a month, the Earth and Moon duo have traveled quite a distance around the Sun. So when the Moon has completed one full orbit around the Earth, it must travel an additional two days to return to the same linear relationship it had with the Earth and the Sun, in order to create the same conditions that are necessary. to have the same phase as the one with which it began its orbit around the Earth.

RES-EMP

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