Hello All,
Here is a sure sign that many people live lives that are too distant from nature and her rhythms:
In replies #14, #15, and #16 on the “CosmoQuest” science and space forum ^here^ (see:
http://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthr...nar-observation ), forum members discussed a lunar phobia that they never conceived of people having (although one of the affected people was only 8 years old at the time, so I’ll cut her some slack—although I never experienced this phobia at that age, or at any age). What is the phobia? It consists of becoming disconcerted, and even frightened, upon seeing the Moon in the *daytime* sky! (One of the sufferers, an adult man, feared that it was crashing to Earth.) Now:
The closest thing to this that I ever observed involved my mother, and it wasn’t a matter of fear, but of confusion (which my father intentionally generated, for the sake of humor). Once when we were walking out the door of the local B & T (Bell & Tiger) grocery store in Hiawassee, Georgia, my father—noticing a crescent Moon in the blue afternoon sky—said calmly, “I see an Earth satellite.” My mother, who hadn’t been looking at the sky, suddenly looked up and asked, “Where?”, expecting to see an artificial satellite (some, like the old Echo 1 & 2 balloon satellites and the ISS, were/are visible in the daytime). He pointed at the Moon and said—just as calmly—“There.” :-) Also:
Even daytime astronomical observations of the Moon, while they are less frequently conducted than nighttime ones, are not without merit (meteorite lunar impacts during daytime meteor showers can be detected). For the amateur astronomer who is learning his or her way around the Moon with binoculars or a telescope, and for the “pleasure viewer” who uses an instrument—or just her or his unaided eyes—to look at the Moon just for fun, our natural satellite provides lovely daytime views (see:
http://www.google.com/search?q=dayt...0&bih=794&dpr=1 ).