Redacted Statement

How many times have you seen the moon and thought: how lovely. Right? How many times have you seen the moon and thought: that's a waxing gibbous, it rose at about 3 pm?

. . . You don't think that?

Well, I do and I guess I shouldn't have to apologize on my own blog for being a nerd.

When I see the moon I'm sometimes a little O.C.D. about identifying the phase it's in and thinking about what time it rose and when it will set. Yes, it's embarrassing but I really am just that nerdy.

*Alert* *Alert* *Alert*

This blog is about to get even nerdier. Nerdier that it has EVER been. Ever.

My sister's husband was watching Star Wars last night. As I wandered into the room and looked at the screen I saw this scene.

Being a nerd who loves moon phases. (As previously discussed). I quickly saw a problem. This is a sunset. The moon on the right of the screen is clearly a waning crescent.

I stood there thinking for a moment and said to my brother in law: That planet and its moon must rotate in the opposite direction of earth.

Quick refresher on moon phases: A moon like that would only be visible in the early predawn, rising a few hours before the sun and then disappearing as the sun gets brighter and brighter. By the time the sun set the moon would have set several hours before.

I walked out of the room thinking this was just one more reason that no one should ever watch those new Star Wars movies.

Just to reassure as well as recap:

Reasons to watch the original Star Wars

1. Han Solo

2. Princess Leia

3. Chewbacca

Reasons to watch the new Star Wars

1. Ewan McGregor

2. no other reason exists

So as I was driving home from their house I started thinking about what that would mean for Earth if she were to rotate in the opposite direction. What that would do to the coriolis effect and ocean currents. How the western side of continents, instead of the eastern side, would be

greener. The sun would travel across the sky in the opposite direction and the moon would wax from left to right.

It was a very satisfying thought process and dialog inside my head. Then my thoughts wandered to the southern hemisphere and I began thinking how the sun would travel across the sky from left to right (as it is normally observed in the North) instead of from right to left as it does now. When it struck me that I had overlooked the most obvious explanation of the movie scene. Coruscant rotates in the same direction as Earth but Obi-wan Kenobi and Qui-gon Jinn were in the southern hemisphere. Duh.

You'd think someone who lived in New Zealand for a year wouldn't suffer so acutely from hemisphere prejudice. I still suffer from an acute case of don't-watch-the-new-star-wars but I can't cite that they got the wrong moon phase as evidence to support my argument anymore.

Good thing the internet was quickly able to confirm my realization that I am not as smart as I think I am. *sigh*

Taken from this website.
From the southern hemisphere the moon looks like this:

Instead of like this:

In other news this little beauty has been hanging in my room all week, delighting me to no end:

A lovely Christmas present from my friend Jen. Get your own from here.