Moonrise at the Kansas River

Looking west from bridge over the Kansas River

What is it about the full moon that draws us to its magic all the days of our lives? If you have seen one full moon you have seen them all - literally. Yet, every full moon appears as beautiful as if we have never experienced one before. The measure of scale afforded by the horizon at moonrise and moonset is my favorite. Why doesn't that illusion hold later, when the moon is overhead and seen through trees, close by buildings? It is only on the earth's horizons that the moon appears enormous. The moon seems ordinary when it is directly overhead in the night sky. I consider it is surrounded by physical infinity and I excuse it for appearing so small and far away. Everything dwarfs in comparison to infinity.

Our little planet has one moon. Jupiter's latest moon count is 79, as of July, 2018. Saturn has 62. Even the dwarf planet Pluto has five moons. Imagine if we could see dozens of moon in the sky. Imagine the myths.

Our moon is tidally locked, meaning it spins on its axis at the exact rate so that one side only ever faces the earth. Charon, the largest of the five moons, is also tidally locked with Pluto. I am sure there are natural laws governing such a thing as tidal lock but it seems like magic to me, magic that takes unimaginable time to happen.

We are tiny bits of carbon-based physical life spinning on a tiny planet with blue oceans in an endless universe where the burning stars are round, and the inert planets are round, and everything - the moons, planets, stars move in round orbits. Who designed the natural laws to make this so? What else is available if we had more senses to perceive? Quantum theory says there are 10 dimensions plus time. Some theories say 13. According to the first string theory, there are 25, and that number is the limit for the most creative minds at this time. Not bad considering we have 3 dimensional minds and have to simply make stuff up. What is the nature of consciousness that we (the royal "we") can actually imagine the possibility of 25 dimensions with our 3 dimensional brain  (4 if you include time)? That is genuine magic.

Looking east from bridge over Kansas River