Today, NASA crashed two parts of the sattelite LCROSS into a crater on the Moon. By studying the dust and other material from the explosions, NASA hopes to find out if the Moon has ice water, and might thus be suitable as a way station to the stars. NASA just held a conference about their findings, according to their schedule, but there isn't anything specific out about it yet on the interwebs.

There was some controversy about the planned lunar "bombing", but most naysayings were from those who wondered what aliens would think of such violent behavior in space.

Please.

As if our puny Earth bombs could scare them.

Which one is still around after 40 years?

Now, I'll admit the moon landing was far more exciting an event, but there's nothing uncool about these huge MoonPies, created by Chattanooga Bakery to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. With 14 pounds of marshmallow and 6 pounds of chocolate, each one is 6 inches tall, weighs in at 55 pounds, and can feed 300 people. The bakery has been making much smaller MoonPies since before World War I, and is still making them today.

Mmm, mmm, good.

On the other hand, no one's set foot on the moon since 1972.

On the other other hand, now that Google Earth includes the moon, our nearest celestial neighbor is closer than ever before. Anyone up for a trip?

The Long Night full moon on Friday, Dec. 12th will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. And the January 2009 full moon will be the biggest and brightest of 2009. Both are Perigee moons, as opposed to Apogee moons, and if those words mean as little to you as they did to me before I read this article, then think of Perigee as being a partying moon, and the Apogee as the apologizing-for-being-unable-to-make-it-to-your-party moon, because the Apogee is actually 50K kilometers farther away from earth than the Perigee.

Which is a helluva distance to go to get out of being at a party, but whatever. Mnemonics are fun.

I love full moons. Always have. Mebbe I'm part werewolf or something. I once saw an enormous and very red full moon, which I have since learned was likely due to pollution (though they can also happen during eclipses), but all I thought at the time was "Oooooh, pretty!" while a friend and I gazed upwards for over an hour, transfixed by that moon, which was so close it seemed nearly touchable.

Here's a couple pictures of red moons, so you can 'Ooooh, pretty' along with me.

For the Long Night Moon, the best viewing will be at midnight this Friday, when the moon will be almost directly overhead and acting like a big ol' spotlight on the earth below. Especially if there's snow, as they're predicting for my region.

Snow: yum! Shiny, ginormous moon on snow: one of the seven wonders, baby!