Our Moon—What Would We Do Without It?
Wednesday: March 12, 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Bethany Congregational Church 556 N. Hope Avenue, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $20; non-member price: $30
Presented by Peter Beuret
A total eclipse of the moon will begin on March 13. This class is a reprise of the presentation Peter Beuret gave before the Nov. 2022 eclipse. In this class, we’ll discuss the physical influence of our moon on our planet. There are larger moons out there, so why is ours the most influential moon in the solar system? What would happen if the moon disappeared tonight and didn’t come back? What if we’d never had a moon at all? Next, we will look at the influence of the moon on us as human beings—the mystical, spiritual, practical, and inspirational influences of our moon, with a bit of special attention to Jules Verne, who wrote about a journey to the moon just a hundred years before the real thing. Finally, we’ll discuss how we observe our moon—what we see and what other people and cultures see (the Man in the Moon, the Woman in the Moon, the Rabbit in the Moon). Does the moon appear upside down in Australia? How and why do eclipses happen? We’ll also review the timetable for the March 13 eclipse.