a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE YOU HAVE TO LOVE the moon. I can’t get enough of it. The moon appears oddly all-present sailing slowly through the night sky. I’ve always felt it has a Victorian or Nouveau style to it, which I know is absurd, but if I found a moon Globe Lamp on a Tiffany-style base, I’d jump on it. Jules Verne must have had one. The elementary storyline is that we only see the side of the moon that faces us, and because it is larger than the viewer, we can’t quite see all of that half. In truth, we can see nearly 60% of the moon due to something called libration. The moon’s orbit around us is elliptical, like a stretched band. It slings out in one direction, comes back, and slings out in the other. When it does this, we get to see more of the leading portion as it comes and trailing portion as it goes. It also wobbles on its axis, which tilts toward us, providing an occasional peek at what is beyond the very top. The moon used to be closer to earth, and a lot warmer too, so over time gravitational forces produced an elongated shape. Front to back (away from us) is longer than the width of what faces us.
>
25 ICON | FEBRUARY 2022 | ICONDV.COM
5
