International Observe The Moon Day

I watched the Cardiff City v Millwall football match this afternoon and it was a scrappy game that ended 0-0. Not ony did Cardiff not play well but the ref had a stinker - not the first time I've seen officials make strange decisions.

After dropping my eldest son, James, back at his car I headed for Ridgeway, Newport to see what the sunset would be like. That wasn't very good either with thick dark clouds on the whole horizon. Turning South I saw a lovely half moon and remembered it's International Observe The moon Day, and my blipfoto is my photo of it. It's a waxing gibbous moon.

Facts about the moon:

It's called 'the moon' because people didn't know that other moons existed when it was discovered, up until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610!

scientists think it is around 4.47 billion years old and it was formed about 95 million years after the solar system came into being. It's thought the Moon was created when a huge piece of rock, which was about the size of the planet Mars, collided with the Earth, breaking off molten rock which then formed the Moon.

The Moon is actually considered to be a satellite, because it travels around the Earth.

It is also responsible for the tides experienced by oceans and seas on our planet. That's because the gravitational pull of the Moon interacts with forces on Earth, and basically pulls the sea in different directions every single day.

It's about 238,855 miles away!

On 20 July 1969, humans walked on the surface of the Moon for the very first time. (Not something I believe!)