DON’T BLAME THE MOON

Evening Star, Issue 19776, 28 January 1928, Page 24

DON’T BLAME THE MOON

YARNS Y'OU SHOULDN’T BELIKV.K. That useful but erratic body, the moon, has not only misled the astronomers over tho eclipse, hub is a quite unrepentant mislcader of hosts of nonsciontific people as well. There is an old belief, for example, that its rays cause blindness to those who sleep out exposed to them. But the writer has yet to hear of a single authenticated case of the kind, and it is doubtful if the wide-spread .belief will cause any misgivings among holiday makers unable to obtain lodgings. The fact is that the brilliance of the full moon is amazingly deceptive, for at best it is quite 600,000 times less intense than that of the sun. Then there is an impression that moonlight injures plants. This, too, is a fallacy. The pioon shining brilliantly implies a clear night, and this in turn means a markedly lower temperature, even to tiie extent of ground frost—and it is this night cold, not the bright rays of the moon which damages tho plants, As for weather fallacies, one can imagine our satellite enjoying the fun it gets out of them. Briefly, the fact of The moon being “on its back ” or “on its face” has not the slightest effect on the weather; it is due simply to orbital position. In other words, it is the result of the particular angle which the moon’s path happens at the moment to be making with the horizon. The “change of weather with the change of moon ” fallacy arises from the weather change sometimes coinciding with one of the many changes of the moon An incorrigible leg puller is the Man in the Moon.