Description
The Moon is one of the most beautiful celestial bodies visible to the naked eye, and there is no person who has never seen the Moon in the sky. However, there are nights without a moon and you can spend the whole night from sunset to sunrise under the starry sky and still not see even a thin crescent. At this time, the Moon is lost in the blinding rays of the Sun, rises with it and sets with it at the same time and therefore is not visible. Fortunately, this does not last long and in a couple of days, immediately after sunset, the newly born lunar crescent will shine in the blue evening sky. It quickly leans to the west and soon sets. But the next night, the young Moon is visible longer and its crescent is no longer so fragile. Evening after evening, the Moon rises higher and higher, becoming fuller and soon its illuminated part will be equal to the invisible, unlit half. This phase is called the first quarter. The following nights change the appearance of our Moon. Now it is approaching a full circle. Some naively believe that the full Moon and the thin Crescent are different celestial bodies and sometimes you can see both in the sky.
Penetrating deeper into the night, the Moon meets similar but very distant bodies — the planets. Anyone who has ever seen this cosmic rendezvous in the blue moonlit sky will wait for it again. Now the Moon rises with the sunset and gives way to the Sun only in the morning, shining among the stars all night. Its perfectly round face through the cosmic ether pours pearly ultramarine onto the Earth, in which the lunar song is heard. Listen...
But our careless Selena completely forgot that it is precisely here that you can fall captive to the shadow that the Earth casts into space. If this happens, we see how the Moon's face changes, turning crimson, or even disappearing into the darkness. This event, which terrified our ancestors, can last for two hours, after which the shadow necessarily releases the Moon and it returns to us, but at this moment its return journey to the Sun begins.
The Moon is getting old. To wait for it, you have to sit looking to the east for half a night. And now, surrounded by a mother-of-pearl halo, it lazily rises, but its face is no longer the same. It is dark and sad, and the song it sings is no longer about happiness. And it is not surprising — from the west, dark and menacing clouds rise to meet the Moon. Having hidden the Moon from our sight, they spread across the entire sky and only rare gaps among the clouds remind us of the Moon.
The clouds go to the east, leaving the sky. But by this time in the pre-dawn sky, low above the horizon, in the branches of spreading willows, only a thin crescent of the old Moon remains. The Moon is dying and death will come for it with the first ray of the Sun.
And the next night, myriads of stars will shine in the endless celestial ocean, planets will float majestically, tailed comets will look into our lands and go to the cold outskirts, and thousands of meteors, having traced the sky, will remind us of our innermost desires... Only the Moon will be gone... Don't be sad. Wait two or three days. It will be born again...
