Astronauts returning from space have repeatedly shared experiences like this:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty.”— Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

“When we look down at the earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile … Anybody else who’s ever gone to space says the same thing because it really is striking and it’s really sobering to see this paper-thin layer and to realize that that little paper-thin layer is all that protects every living thing on Earth from death, basically. From the harshness of space.”— Shuttle/ISS astronaut Ron Garan

The overview effect, coined by Frank White, is kind of the mother of seeing the forest for the trees. It’s the realisation that we live on a fragile planet, we are all connected, and this is all we’ve got.

The sketch is based on the image of earth from the moon taken on the Apollo 11 mission.

The overview effect

A full moon that hits twice in a calendar month. Given the cycle from full moon to full moon is about 29.5 days it doesn’t happen very often that this coincides so nicely. And February never has a blue moon.

I like this definition, but it is apparently a modification to the original definition which is a little more complicated. Given the 29.5 day cycle, most seasons of 3 months have 3 full moons. But every now and then, a season would come by, like Sep, Oct, Nov in the sketch, where there would be 4 full moons. The 3rd of these was known as a blue moon, or a seasonal blue moon. See why I like the modern definition?

Here’s a good article that explains the subtleties and history of blue moons.

Check out more moon or astronomy sketchplanations

What is a blue moon?

It’s good to know your waxing (growing) from your waning (shrinking), and that a gibbous is the shape of the moon when you take a crescent of shadow from a circle of light, and that the hardest moon to see is a new one.

If it’s light on the right, it’s gonna get bright. If it’s light on the left, it ain’t.

Like the moon? Apparently so do I: See the moon illusion, super moon, one side of the moon or just sketchplanations > astronomy.

Phases of the moon

The moon seems smaller when up in the sky and bigger when on the horizon. I was surprised to learn that the real cause is still disputed.

The moon illusion

When a moon appears its largest. A treat for photographers with big zooms and aspirational looking cityscapes or yachts on the horizon (or ET on a flying bike). Hat tip to Science Llama.

Super moon

It shuffles a little, but you’ll notice you can always see the face. The mathematics of it are quite hard to fathom.

Sketchplanations tagged with moon