MOON: HER NAME IS LUNA

Moon: The earth's satellite; shining by light reflected from the sun and revolving around the earth in the period of a lunar month. 

How do I describe something what has been like a friend for over five decades of my life.  Friends aren't always visible, but they seem to show up when one needs them.  That is the moon for me.  

The Moon has a name: Luna.  I like that better.  It's better than just being referred to as 'the moon'.  Luna is our closest cosmic presence.  It's a whopping 384,400 km from earth on average.  To put that in perspective, that would equate to just over nine and a half trips around the earth if you were circumnavigating at the equator.  That is a bit of a hike.  

I tried educating myself this morning on what it took for Earth's astronauts to get to the moon.  The process was quite the ordeal.  I listened to Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke explain some of that process.  

I was sixteen months old when the first space boots touched moon ground.  It's a story that has been with me for most of my life.  I personally have no problem accepting it as an historical event, but there are a lot of people that don't.  The "Moon landing is a Fake" camp has a significant amount of campers.  I just don't find it necessary for me to be one of them.  I guess it's one more thing that I get to believe it without the personal evidence.  

I don't think I have a sufficient reason to debate the facts.  It's not a hill for me to die on.  I like how Neil Degrasse Tyson puts it.  In so many words he stated that it would be easier to land on the moon than it would be to fake the landing.  So why not just land on the moon.  Neil Degrasse Tyson has seen the evidence.  Charlie Duke has been to the moon.  So I will let them tell their story and I will listen.    I have no need to tell Charlie Duke that his experience was an illusion.  I don't like that when others tell me that my experiences have been illusions.  I like to be validated when I tell my story.  It is the only gift I can give someone.  Especially if I don't have any ground to stand on to say otherwise.  

In the last few weeks, I have enjoyed capturing images of the moon with my iPhone.  They aren't sharp by any means.  The iPhone doesn't take great pictures of the moon or the stars.  Maybe one day I will be able to look through a telescope and see the moon in more detail.  It is on my bucket list.  But until then, I will just keep an naked eye out for my friend that comes to visit on occasion.