Dear Michael, I once went to Pompeij with somebody who was careless enough to fell in love with me. We got lost, after the Pompeij necropolis was closed and walked around through the darkness, expecting every second that a time leap might send us back to year 79 A.D., when the erupting Vesuv burried the town and all its people underneath. The red-orange background is from a photo we did there at sunset, the mysterious moon in the foreground is from tonight.
Take good care,
/ghazal

did you ever wondered why so many people are fascinated by the moon, which in fact has much less an impact on our physical life than the sun? Is it only its position close to the earth and the notion that the movement of the moon is completely depending on the existence of earth? Since unlike the sun, which is like a superpower that nurishes us with its energy but in fact could easily exist without the Earth, the moon is more like the Earth little sibling. Assuming the Earth would suddenly disappear, the moon would leave its orbit and escape into the endless space with a velocity of about 8800 km/h. The sun, however would not even recognise that the earth has disappeared.
It is perhaps this fascination that a large object as far as 380 thousand km away is still completely dependend on us that makes us feeling a some sort of almost intime relationship with the Moon.

Some people believe that the moon phases have a direct and immediate influence onto living organisms on Earth. But appart from the obvious change in night darkness between new and full moon, and the corresponding impact on sleep or nocturnal activity of creatures and people, there is very little solid scientific proof that human health or plant physiology changes with the moon cycle.
But it is not only myself who is amazed ones every month when the full moon rises above the horizon. Have a look at this short video sequence some astronomer did in New Zealand during January full moon. It is a real-time video shot at night with people observing the rising full moon (source: NASA Astronomers Picture of the Day).

It is most likely that the idea of the moon interfering with human physiology and health has its origin in the coincidental similarity of the period of femal oestrus cycle with the duration of the lunar cycle.  But despite the apparent similarity between the 29.5 days lunar cycle period (or 27.3 days rotation period around the Earth) and the average 28.5 days of the femal oestrus cycle, there is no synchronity between these two oscillations.

But there was one observation that – for a short moment – made me wonder:  Almost with the same frequency that I send to you images of the full moon every 28 days, you send back answers. It did not matter whether I send you just one or twenty e-mails per month: You always answered one per month, and this in very fixed intervalls. Therefore I was almost wondering if it is not so much your free will to write me occasionally, but more the result of a regular hormonal up and down that prompts you to reply to my letters.

Take Care
Michael

Take Care,
Michael

Ghazal Dear,
the moon tried to hide tonight, just like you. It took me the whole night through to shift away the clouds, so it only became visible in the early morning.

I always find it strange, that the moon is neutrum in English. In German the Moon is a male word. In many latin and slavic languages, Moon is female. How is it in Swedish and in Persian ?

Take Care, my Dear.
Michael

Picture taken at 11:45 pm, Newton mirror telescope, Type Optus, F=700 mm

SAMSUNG PL90 digicam

Ghazal my dear,

What is age, and what is aging, if everyone uses a different measure for this. This came to my mind when I did another picture of the moon tonight. Tonight it was once again the night of the Persides meteor shower. But since nothing could top the spectacular meteor that we saw together with you at the same night in 2010, I put more attention to the moon again (1). A year ago at the same night, we have been at the Bulgarian blacksea coast, and then the Persides night fell together with the full moon. This year, however, the same day in the year (11th to 12th of August), the moon looked completely different.

Is there a final take-home message from this post for you, Ghazal ? Maybe you will find one.

Take Care my Dear

Michael

Footnotes:

(1) Surely you know that the Moon symbolizes the pure, innocent beauty in Persian classicla poetry. This is independent of the exclusive role of the Sun in ancient, pre-islamic Persian culture, philosophy and science. But because poetry is very much influenced by arabic traditions, their spiritual preference for the moon as symbol in religion and arts got access into the poetry of Hafez, Rumi, Atta and Omar Khayyun.

(2) The Persides Meteor shower lives up to its name: same as the Persian people do, it follows precisely the sun’s calender. I guess that it follows in a precise and constant time after Persian Nouruz.

(3) Initially I could not figure out, if the name of the company GLOBAL-SHINING was referring to the moon or the sun. But now that I know that it is a Hongkong based company, I guess they even mean the Shining Stars.

(4) I guess Mr. Ho wont mind having his business address published here on my blog. But it might further promoted his excellent business. Just that Tsuen Wan does not have a postcode might discourage Hongkong tourists to drop into his store and buy camera displays.

Hi Michael, not sure if I shall recommend you to see that new movie by Lars v. Trier “MELANCHOLIA”.
It started in Sweden already in May, but I did not had time before to go.
It has some very beautiful scenes, in particular at the very beginning. It shows some moments in the life of the main character (Justine, played by Kirsten Dunst) in extreme slow-motion. It is so extrem slow-motion, that a blink of her eyes takes 2 minutes, and when she is doing a step forward on the field, this takes 5 minutes.
It reminded me a bit what you wrote me last week, that my fear that time is passing too fast is a pure illusion. Because it is so subjective how we anticipate time, it is perhaps also possible to manipulate the speed of time.  You might even manage to slow down the speed of time, like in the movie.

Melancholia from Zentropa on Vimeo

But except for these first scenes, the movie becomes sad and tragic. It appears that the earth is going to collide with another planet, and all life will be destroyed. But Justine, who suffers from episodes of depression during her wedding ceremony, suddenly becomes very calm and self-confident when this huge planet approaches the earth slowly. All other person, who were initially the strong and successful ones, start to panic.

In particular her sister Clair changes completely, from a 100% self confident and rational person to an emotional ruin.

Take Care

/ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,

Melancholia will start next week in Munich. I only saw a trailer, it was amazing to see how the earth is slowly absorbed by this new planet Melancholia. It is a beautiful scene, very aesthetic. It is an extraordinary idea of the film director to show the end of the earth not as a big disaster with noise and explosions and distraction, but with a very calm and almost harmonic “operation”.  By the way, the planet Melancholia was also visible over Munich:

Do you know that Clair, the sister of Justine is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Do you remember we were listening last year to their song “Je t’aim – moi non plus” . I hope you are calm and self-confident and strong, and you don”t have to worry about nothing at all.

All you need is love (just a citation from a Beatles Song).

Take Care, my Dear   Michael

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Hello Michael,

It is difficult to imagine that the actress who played this emotional fragile Clair could have been the product of this amazing song, and of two very strong parents.

If you want to watch the movie when it starts in Munich, I recommend you to go not alone.  Some scenes might be not just melancholic, but depressing. It is better to go there in companie.

Take Care

/ghazal