Minster Moon

By happy coincidence,  it was the first day of the Museum of the Moon installation at Southwell Minster today which is the subject of the  main photo and one of the extras. The other extra is a view of the West "pepperpot" towers of the Minster. These date from  1160 - 1170. Friends of mine had seen this amazing reproduction of the moon when it was on display in Winchester Cathedral earlier this year so I was delighted to find it in Southwell on my brief visit to the town. The leaflet explaining the piece states that it is a touring artwork by UK artist, Luke Jerram. It measures 7 metres in diameter at an approximate scale of 1:5000,000, and features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. There is a surrounding sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award=winning composer Dan Jones which includes clips from JFK announcing the ambition to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade (the 1960s) which, of course, was achieved by a country then united in its ambition, and snippets of moon-themed music such as Debussy's Clair de Lune. I was sorry not hear a sample from Public Service Broadcasting's Race for Space, though. There was also an information sheet about the moon so that I now know, for example, that the moon is getting further away at a rate of  about four centimetres a year. This is because the Earth's rotation is slowing and, as the Earth's spin slows, the Moon is creeping away. Not sure what impact that will have over the millennia to come but that will be for others to discover if we haven't managed to destroy the planet in the meantime. A number of events are programmed to take place at the Minster whilst the Moon is there including a Pilates session beneath the silvery sphere which meant we couldn't get into the Minster to see it until 10 am. Whilst I waited I fell into a conversation with a chap who was extolling the virtues of Pilates. Apparently his physiotherapist had told him that she couldn't help him any more and he would be better off saving £30 an hour and going to Pilates instead which, he said, had had almost immediate results in improving his back pain. He even demonstrated a couple of moves - to the amusement of the small group of us waiting to go in whilst his wife looked on indulgently. Mmm, I thought, there's a Pilates class advertised in our village hall.....