Moon has enamoured mankind since centuries ! - today is Pournami, full moon day.
A former Confederate soldier, John Chandler comes to an Illinois town with his 10-year-old son David to see Dr. Enos Davis. The boy was struck mute after witnessing his mother burned to death when Union soldiers set fire to their homestead, and hasn't spoken a word since. Dr. Davis recommends an operation by a doctor he knows in Minnesota. .. .. ..
The storyline of 1958 American Technicolor Western film directed by Michael Curtiz, with a screenplay by Joseph Petracca and Lillie Hayward that was based on a story by James Edward Grant. The movie ‘Proud Rebel’. It is the story of a widowed Confederate veteran and his mute son who struggle to make a new life among sometimes hostile neighbors in the Midwest. The film starred Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd and Cecil Kellaway.
To us it is Pournami and Amavasai – to the Western world the phases of moon are far more elaborate. Today is Full moon and it is described as last super moon of 2024. November ends the four-month supermoon streak that started in August. NASA had stated that November's full moon will appear bigger and brighter than other full moons, since it reaches peak lunation at the point in its elliptical orbit closest to Earth.
In our entire solar system, the only object that shines with its own light is the Sun. That light always beams onto Earth and Moon from the direction of the Sun, illuminating half of our planet in its orbit and reflecting off the surface of the Moon to create moonlight. Sometimes the entire face of the Moon glows brightly. Other times we see only a thin crescent of light. Sometimes the Moon seems to disappear. These shifts are called moon phases. There are eight lunar phases : new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. The cycle repeats once a month (every 29.5 days).
Today, Nov. 15, 2024, the moon is 14 days old and is in the Full Moon phase of its lunar cycle. It is 99% illuminated. Moon phases reveal the passage of time in the night sky. Some nights when we look up at the moon, it is full and bright; sometimes it is just a sliver of silvery light. These changes in appearance are the phases of the moon. As the moon orbits Earth, it cycles through eight distinct phases. The four primary phases of the moon (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter) occur about a week apart, with the full moon its most dazzling stage.
"This is as close as we come to seeing the sun's illumination of the entire day side of the moon (so, technically, this would be the real half moon)," NASA wrote in its moon guide. "The moon is opposite the sun, as viewed from Earth, revealing the moon's dayside." The full moon actually appears full before it reaches its final phase. It can appear full to the casual observer for a couple of days before and after the actual date. "The full moon rises around sunset and sets around sunrise," NASA wrote. The phases of the moon are a consequence of its motion around Earth in relation to the geometry assumed with respect to the sun.
To better understand how it works, let us, first of all, remember that the moon does not emit its own light but reflects that of the sun and partly that reflected by the Earth–phenomenon of ashen light. Of the moon, we always see a hemisphere and a little more because its rotation is synchronous and blocked by the tide. This means that one lunar rotation on its axis corresponds to the time of revolution around Earth, equal to 29.5 days.
Here are couple of photos Moon taken by me – generally it is very difficult to photograph Stars – today saw a shining object in another direction away from moon and in the last photograph you can see a dotted shining object.
Wonder the reference to movie ‘Proud Rebel’ at the start – for sure, you know this famous song penned by Kaviyarasu Kannadasan, to the music of MS Viswanathan, sung by PB Sreenivas and P Susheele – from the movie Ramu.
நிலவே என்னிடம் நெருங்காதே ! நீ நினைக்கும் இடத்தில் நான் இல்லை
மலரே என்னிடம் மயங்காதே, நீ மயங்கும் வகையில் நான் இல்லை
கோடையில் ஒருநாள் மழை வரலாம்; என் கோலத்தில் இனிமேல் எழில்வருமோ ?
பாலையில் ஒரு நாள் கொடி வரலாம்; என் பார்வையில் இனிமேல் சுகம் வருமோ!!
Ramu, directed by AC Tirulokchandar and written by Javar N. Seetharaman hit the screens in 1966. The film starred Gemini Ganeshan, KR Vijaya, Ashokan, Nagesh, V. K. Ramasamy, O. A. K. Thevar and Master Rajkumar—as the title character—in supporting roles. It was a remake of the Hindi film Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein (1964), it revolved around a boy who loses his speech after witnessing his mother's death, and his father attempts to restore his son's speech. Ramu was produced by Uma Productions, a subsidiary of AVM Productions, and predominantly shot in the village of Kaduvetti, Tamil Nadu.
Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein (Far Away Under the Shadow of the Sky) was directed, produced and written by Kishore Kumar. The movie was an adaptation of the American film The Proud Rebel (1958).
Regards – S Sampathkumar
15.11.2024
