Far over the horizon.

This Friday's a full moon, which is nice.

Anyway, in looking into the solar probe for my article last Sunday, I got to thinking about this insane information about our other big sky friend, Mr. Moonlight:

Holy Toledo!

I'd seen that factoid on Cracked and heard that it came from Reddit, but despite that it actually turns out to be true. No wonder it took three days at, well, astronomical speed to get our astronauts to the moon. It's not like driving to the shore for vacation. Although it must be said that the traffic is better.

Our moon is ridiculously far away, 238,900 miles, and yet so strong. We sometimes think it looks huge, especially at Halloween.

Here the moon is orbiting Earth at a height of seventy miles.

But looking at the real moon in the real sky, one might think it's what, maybe a tenth the size of earth? Actually the moon is more than a quarter of the size of our planet. It's bigger than Pluto, which might be one of the reasons for Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet.

So I have to ask: Why is this moon thing hanging around us? And so far away? And yet it still pulls the tides. Its dark side shows the impacts of some meteors we would prefer to have struck there rather than here. Life on earth may not have emerged without the moon, which is one reason we may be very much more alone in the universe than we think. Not every planet is lucky enough to have such a cool accessory. We're lucky it showed up one day, however weirdly it happened.

So if this all isn't moon-mind-blowing enough for you, let me hit you with this factoid about Michael Collins you may not have heard. It's not original to me, but it ought to be shared widely.

Collins was, among other things, the astronaut who stayed behind on the command module of Apollo 11 while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men on the moon. Not sure if there was a short straw involved, but it doesn't seem so. In addition to being the only NASA astronaut to inspire a Jethro Tull song, Collins took this famous picture from the command module of Apollo 11:

As Rare Historical Photos put it, inside this frame is everybody on Earth who ever lived -- except Michael Collins.

He may not have been the first man on the moon, but that is an amazing claim to fame.

Forty-nine years ago our three guys had just come back from the first manned landing on the moon. Sometimes it seems more incredible with the passing of time.