Courtesy NASA

Each year since 2003 the week of the new moon in April has been designated as National Dark Sky Week. This year the week of April 20 – 26 has been dubbed International Dark Sky Week cooperatively with the International Year of Astronomy.

National Dark Sky Week aims to raise awareness about the escalating and compounding problem of man made light pollution and its drain on energy resources. NDSW originated in Virginia by Jennifer Barlow and since then more and more individuals and communities have begun to participate by turning out their lights wherever possible during this week in observance.

Why should we care about light pollution? Despite the approximated 300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, the stars in the night skies that are physically available to detection by naked eye observers is closer to a mere 8500. That number is halved, because we can only view half of the night sky at any given time, and then halved again to around 2500 stars that are potentially visible given optimal horizon and climate conditions. This, despite any natural light pollution from the moon or from man made light intrusions.

Poignantly, to the cause of the International Year of Astronomy, when we look to the skies collectively our man made political borders disappear and we understand a little bit more about how the human race is bound together on one fragile, infinitesimal chunk of rock. Please take the time to recognize any group or citizen that has made definitive steps towards energy efficiency and the reduction of light pollution and light trespass in the Gunnison Valley community.

Many times astronomy involves being aware of and tracking local phenomena like weather patterns and the increasingly crowded beltway of low orbit man made satellites. Last summer as I spent time inside the dome at the Gunnison Valley Observatory peering through the open hydraulic doors at the night sky I frequently happened to catch the reflected light of a satellite in motion. This happened in spite of my poetic delusion that our more removed atmosphere was less cluttered by man made technology than our terrestrial domain.

At this time orbiting the Earth there are roughly 13,000 objects being tracked ranging in size from a screwdriver to the International Space Station (ISS). A few weeks ago there was an unexpected smashup between a functioning satellite and a defunct Russian Ministry of Defense satellite over Siberia. As a result we now have countless debris swirling around in a highly radical fashion making it difficult to track. This difficulty could spell trouble for the potential of more inter-satellite collisions, available space launch windows and for safe travel of mankind to and from destinations like the ISS, the Moon and beyond. As the second wave of the space race heats up and new national competitors in space exploration enter the stage it is only going to become more of a ‘fuster cluck’ up above.

Space Debris courtesy of NASA

High density technology in motion is bound to collide as the automobile has effectively proven over the last century here on Earth. In January 2007 China launched a rocket that destroyed one of its own weather satellites and generated more than 2400 new items in an orbital spectrum from 300 to 2500 miles. China also recently smashed a satellite into the Moon in a highly erratic fashion. As China is new in the realm of space programming and experience I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they simply don’t know what they are doing and are literally fumbling about in the dark. It does, however, pose a hazard to the international community and leaves me pondering the ethical rhetoric that just because we can use technology for particular ends does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we should make use of that technology. Still, like a child appreciates the rainbows in an oil slick, I can appreciate the tracks of all kinds of objects moving through the crystalline Gunnison Valley night skies.

The week of March 5 – 12 brings us a look at the Moon as it becomes full March 10. As a full moon on clear nights tends to blot out the more delicate light of deeper sky objects let us give it the spotlight attention it commands.

For humanities’ history on Earth the Moon has long been looked on as a relative haven of stability and regularity as it travels in tandem with us in the sky. Lately, however, there have been some interesting developments in our observations of the Moon. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released new details about the Moon from their Selenelogical Engineering and Explorer mission launched back in September 2007. The space explorer is also known as Kaguya. Selenological refers to Selene the Grecian mythological Titan of the Moon and Kaguya is an invocation of the Moon princess from Japanese folklore. Regardless of the nomenclature the new data that has been gathered is challenging our perceptions about the nature of the Moon and raising plenty of new questions.

According to the newly collected data the far side of the Moon has an opposite amount of gravity to the side that we regularly observe which has more local gravity. Coincidentally, Kaguya’s observations of the dark side of the Moon have revealed that its geology is far more rigid and less eroded than the side that we generally view from Earth. These two new revelations regarding the Moon are not well understood however they may very well be related.

Additionally a couple of researchers from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris have statistically shown that the eastern side of the Moon has a disproportional amount of large and ancient impact basins. This is counter intuitive to the present orientation of the Moon. Currently the western hemisphere of the Moon leads as it travels around the Earth and should therefore catch more debris in its pathway resulting in heavier and larger pock marking than other lunar surfaces. The researchers hypothesize that at some point in its past the Moon may have spun roughly 180 degrees on its axis as a result of impact. There is so much left unexplained in the science of astronomy that it can boggle the mind when taken in full. The Moon is no exception, quite mysterious and open to dynamic interpretation when observed in detail. Enjoy the full moon.