Luigi

Last night I was sitting on my back porch and looking up at the night sky, as I often do, observing God’s awesomeness. I love to look at a constellation and wonder how many trillions of stars and galaxies make up each one. As I looked up I saw my favorite constellation Orion, the hunter, I remembered the many stars that make it up; Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak and Saiph. Every little dot one sees as they lift their eyes to the heavens has a name, even if it is just a number. There is Capella, M42, Castor, Pollux, the moon, Sirius… wait… the moon?

Someone named all of that... every star

I was shocked that I did not know the real name of the moon.  I must have forgotten it.  At this point in my night I walked inside and looked on the internet; because the Internetz knows all. Well, it turns the official name of the moon is… get ready for it… The Moon.  Mankind has spent millions of hours documenting and naming everything in the sky and they haven’t name the really big bright circle that outshines everything else in the night sky? Every other moon in our solar system has name, all 167 of them. Jupiter has 63 moons… all named. Saturn has 61 moons… all named. Earth, the planet that holds the really smart people who name everything, has one moon… named The Moon. Did we run out of ancient Roman gods? That’s like naming your child The Boy because he is the only one your have.

One of Jupiter's moons is named S/2003 J 12, so don't worry about picking a bad name, they already did.

The ancient Romans called it Luna, the Greeks called it Artemis and Selene. Many, many other ancient civilizations and tribes have names for it. Modern man? The Moon.  I would have thought the name would have been Luna because that's where we get the words lunar and lunatic. I discussed this conundrum with a friend at work today and he suggested we call it Fred. He always like that name. I like the name Luigi. That would make for a good name for a moon.  Here is my logic:  All the planets are named after Roman mythology, Luigi sounds like the Roman god of pizza, Romans are Italian and so is Luigi.  There you have it.

We have made The Moon cry.

I say we start a movement to name the moon. Who’s with me? Let me know your suggestions.

I feel we have done a good service to the residents of Earth today. Now all the objects in the sky have been given a name. I think I will celebrate by going outside and enjoy myself under the warmth of The Sun… wait…

Its the big shiny thing that hurts my eyes!