The Joy of Amateur Astronomy and how I discovered the Basketball Player on The Moon!

Many years ago, a man named Carl Sagan told us that we we were all made of stardust.
And in some of us, that stardust comes alive and expresses itself in a longing for home, a kind of a homing signal of sorts as we cast our eyes back into the sky from whence we came.

We are therefore a different breed...

We do things in the dark of night, not in the deep, deep darkness of clouds and storms but in the darkness lit by the light of the moon and our home galaxy and aurora and meteor storms.

We are Amateur Astronomers...

Not amateurs in the sense of those who can hardly do a thing but in the sense of
lovers of the sky.

And we love our sky that God in his divine wisdom gave us

And we dislike the false light that man sheds up into the sky that covers the light made by God.

Now if you happen to live by one or many of us you may find late at night that we are out tooling around in our backyards...

Looking, looking constantly looking...not at your house but at eternity above.

Strange starlight turns us on...

Stars that go BANG and stars that don't

Bunches and bunches of stars that look just like the globular dust bunnies
that collect under our beds...

And pinwheels of light so feeble, it's a wonder their photons ever reach the Earth at all!

Not to forget meteors that streak by...

And the darkness and strange light that exists...but only for mere moments of a Total Solar Eclipse...

Where we cheer in the shadow of the moon and we also cheer in the shadow of the Earth too during a Total Lunar Eclipse...

Yes, sometimes they call us Loony because of the light of the moon..

"By the light of the silvery moon.."

And in that special state of mind..sometimes we make discoveries, not for scientists but for
regular folk, who work, who love and who dream....

Now years ago, you should know, The National Geographic Magazine came out with a map called "The Earth's Moon" and my copy had frayed and withered with time and lost and gone forever until I found out that some brillant employee had decided to bring it back and so I soon had another copy and it has made it's home in my room, opposite my bed.

Then one night, I happened to look at this map and saw, for the very first time, something that no one had ever seen or reported...

And I promptly forgot...
They told you of the Man in The Moon and The Woman in the Moon and the tale of the Rabbit but here's something they never told you of because they didn't know it existed!

And remembered last week on May 12.

Now you know I began this tale by telling you of the Man in the moon and the woman in the moon and the rabbit too..

But I bet you didn't know that there is a Basketball Player, A Volleyball Player, A soccer player and a Juggler too?

So here's the story truth be told, I tried to upload the map that I made but couldn't because of either a computer problem or software problem on current tv's side, I know not which so I will have to paint a word picture and then you can match the names of the seas with the numbers on the map and magically (I hope ) you will see the figures that I've seen:)

My Basketball Player or Juggler can be seen at Full Moon.

Oceanus Procellarum makes his back with Mare Cognitum his right shoulder
and Mare Nubium his right elbow continuing into Sinus Aestuum & Sinus Medii his right hand.
His left shoulder and arm begins at Sinus Roris and continues through Mare Frigoris ending as his hand around the crater Aristotle.
His head is Mare Imbrium and left ear is Sinus Iridum. The basketball is Mare Serenitatis.

If you choose to see him as a juggler of course Mare Serenitatis is one giant ball with others being Mare Vaporum,
Mare Tranquillitatus, Mare Nectaris and Mare Crisium.

Many thanks to the staff of National Geographic and to "The Light-Hearted Astronomer"
Ken Fulton.