Moonlit night with Neil Armstrong

Yesterday saw the passing of an American icon, Neil Armstrong- While I am not old enough to remember his footsteps on the moon (apparently I was engrossed at the time in whatever captures the attention of 4 month old babies) his legacy defined for kids my age what is possible-

"Maybe when we grow up, we can move to the moon!"

Not me, I am going to live on Mars!"

"Oh yeah, I am going to go to another star!!"

This was not an actual conversation, but we had many like it- and while things such as cell phones have become part and parcel of our existence, human exploration of space is no longer the stuff of present day childhood dreams.  The model rockets that adorned the bookshelves of our youth, the favorite astronaut that we all had, have been supplanted by ipods and star athletes.  I am not against progress and I am in fact a big sports fan-  but what has happened to our sense of space exploration?

Last night was relatively clear and to honor Neil Armstrong in my own small way I snapped a few images of the moon with my Canon T2i using my 12 inch LX200 SCT and a 2X barlow lens.

Montes Apenninus, Eratosthenes (Terraced crater, left of center at bottom)

Straight Wall (Rupes Recta), Mare Nubium

Archimedes, Autolycus, Aristillus, Cassini, Montes Alps, Plato 

In closing, the video below is a nice reminder of where we have been as explorers of space, and where we are headed-  Turn up your speakers and listen to Optimus Prime!