Three days from today, the world celebrates the 39th anniversary of man’s first landing on the Moon. I was among the millions who were glued to their TV screens, watching history being made. 8 years old, I was awestruck. I heard Neil Armstrong uttering those famous words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Of course, at the time, I could only understand the words “man” and “giant”.

I suppose this was also the time the expression “The eagle has landed” was coined. The Eagle was the lunar vehicle that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the Moon. It descended in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon’s surface. That first moon-landing was what eventually inspired mankind to achieve the impossible, to reach for the star, so to speak.

I guess man has since the beginning of time been fascinated by the Moon. How else would you explain the many expressions in the languages that allude to the Moon, like ...

To ask/cry for the moon - to want something that is not possible.
To be over the moon - to be extremely pleased about something
Many moons ago - a long time ago.
To promise (someone) the moon - to promise something impossible
To reach for the moon/stars - to try to achieve something that is very difficult.
To think someone hung the moon - you really look up to or admire someone.
To visit the man in the moon - to do something that is unlikely.
And the familiar Once in a blue moon, which means very rarely.

Once in a Blue Moon
A truly rare occurrence is to witness a full moon twice in one month – however, it does happen. The Farmer’s Almanac dates back as far as 1792. A few years later in 1820, Maine became a state. (Not to say that farmers did not keep almanacs before statehood was recognized). Maine farmers would record the full moon in red print for each month. When a second full moon occurred in the same month, the ink was changed to blue. Blue moons have never occurred in the month of February.

In Malay, we have the following expressions that relates to the moon, or bulan …

….. even …. Datang bulan

There are also nursery rhymes about moon. Bet you were taught this in school…

By the way, do you know that there is a town in Perry County, Kentucky of the United States called Bulan? There was also a ruler, King Bulan, the first Jewish king of the Khazar Kingdom. He was converted to Judaism by Rabbi Yitzhak HaSangari during the 9th century. Khazars were a Turkic people of early southern Russia. A portion of the Khazar people was Jewish and intermarried with Jews. The Khazars lost their independent kingdom in 1016.

But, how much do we know about the Moon? I googled the following facts:

The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. Its diameter measures 3,476 km and it rotates along an orbit 384,400 km from Earth.

Called Luna by the Romans, Selene and Artemis by the Greeks, and many other names in other mythologies.

The Moon, of course, has been known since prehistoric times. It is the second brightest object in the sky after the Sun. As the Moon orbits around the Earth once per month, the angle between the Earth, the Moon and the Sun changes; we see this as the cycle of the Moon's phases. The time between successive new moons is 29.5 days (709 hours), slightly different from the Moon's orbital period (measured against the stars) since the Earth moves a significant distance in its orbit around the Sun in that time.

The Moon was first visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 in 1959. It is the only extraterrestrial body to have been visited by humans. The first landing was on July 20, 1969; the last was in December 1972. The Moon is also the only body from which samples have been returned to Earth.

The gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon cause some interesting effects. The most obvious is the tides. The Moon's gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side.

Since the Earth, and particularly the oceans, is not perfectly rigid it is stretched out along the line toward the Moon. From our perspective on the Earth's surface we see two small bulges, one in the direction of the Moon and one directly opposite.

The effect is much stronger in the ocean water than in the solid crust so the water bulges are higher. And because the Earth rotates much faster than the Moon moves in its orbit, the bulges move around the Earth about once a day giving two high tides per day.

The Moon isn't just in the sky. It's just about everywhere we look, although we may not realize it. That buttery croissant you might have eaten for breakfast was originally a Gallic communion cake inspired by the crescent Moon; princesses and the girl next door have been named after the goddess identified with a phase of the Moon. We've all heard about how the Moon is made of green cheese, or that strange little men live upon it; but how many of us knew that the maiden name of Buzz Aldrin's maternal grandmother was "Moon," or remembered that men brought back 47.7 pounds of the Moon on that first mission 39 years ago?

HoustonChronicle.com takes a look at some of these fascinating facts, and equally fascinating lunar legends.

Fact: Earth is the planet nearest the Sun to be orbited by a moon.
Legend: Among ancient cultures that worshipped heavenly bodies, the moon was always the most important. Many primitives revered the moon more than the sun, reasoning that the Moon-mother gives her light at night, when it is needed, while the sun shines only by day.

Fact: With a diameter of 2,160 miles, the Earth's moon is one of the largest in our solar system.
Legend: Within the cosmic order, the Moon is regarded as a duplication of the sun but in diminished form because, if the Sun brings life to the entire planetary system, the Moon influences only Earth.

Fact: A woman has never set foot on the Moon.
Legend: The Moon is the Great Eternal Mother. In central Asia, it was said that the Moon is the Goddess' mirror reflecting everything in the world. Sioux Indians called the Moon "The Old Woman Who Never Dies." In many cultures, the Moon-goddess and the Creatress were one and the same. The Moon ruled the sexuality of women and sometimes made them scornful of male-dominated society. St. Augustine berated women for dancing "impudently and filthily all the day long upon the days of the new moon."

Fact: Twelve men have explored the lunar terrain. They are: Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Apollo 11; Alan L. Bean and Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., Apollo 12; Edgar D. Mitchell and Alan B. Shepard, Apollo 14; James B. Irwin and David R. Scott, Apollo 15; Charles M. Duke Jr. and John W. Young, Apollo 16; and Eugene A. Cernan and Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17.
Legend: Some say the man in the Moon is a man leaning on a fork, on which he is carrying a bundle of sticks picked up on a Sunday. Another tradition says that the man is Cain, with his dog and thorn bush. The thorn bush is said to represent the thorns and briars of the fall, and the dog is the "foul fiend." Some poets claim the man in the moon is Endymion, taken there by Diana.

Fact: At new moon and at full moon, the tides raised by the moon are reinforced by the Sun; these are the "spring tides."
Legend: As the Moon governs the sea's tides, so it governs the tides of life and death. Shore-dwellers believed that a baby can be born only on an incoming tide and a dying person cannot expire until the tide goes out. Birth at a full tide or a full moon means a lucky life. Scottish girls refused to schedule a wedding day for any time other than the full moon, the most fortunate time for women.

Fact: The closest the Moon can come to Earth -- its perigee -- is 221, 463 miles. The farthest it can go away -- its apogee -- is 252,710 miles.
Legend: The progressive change in the shape of the Moon gives birth to a mystic theory of forms that influences the construction of musical instruments and the characters of the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets.

Fact: If the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun and the plane of the Moon's orbit around Earth were the same, the Moon would be eclipsed by Earth every time it is full, and the Sun would be eclipsed by the Moon every time the moon is "new." But because the two orbits do not coincide, the Moon's shadow normally misses Earth, and Earth's shadow misses the moon.
Legend: Animals regarded as lunar are those which alternate between appearance and disappearance, like the amphibians. Examples are the snail, which leaves its shell and returns to it, or the bear, which vanishes in winter and reappears in spring.

Fact: It takes 27.3 days for the Moon to make its circuit around Earth.
Legend: Ancients based their calendars on the phases of the moon and menstrual cycles because they believed the Moon-goddess created time, with all its cycles of creation, decline, and destruction. The moon still determines agricultural work in parts of India.

Fact: During the first lunar landing, man spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon's surface.
Legend: Kastor of Rhodes said that the shoes of Roman senators were decorated with ivory crescents to show that after death they would inhabit the Moon.

Fact: Approximately once every 19 years, one year will have two months with two full moons because February will have no full moon at all.
Legend: The Moon was known as Hecate before it had risen and after it had set; as Astarte when crescent; as Diana or Cynthia (she who "hunts the clouds") when in the open vault of heaven; and as Phoebe when looked upon as the sister of the sun.

Fact: The Moon's mass is approximately 1/80 that of the Earth.
Legend: Semites feared the devouring Old Moon. The moon's legendary dual nature -- life-giver and life-taker -- may account for the correlation between the Semitic ima, "mother," and e-mah, "terror." Superstitious Christians sometimes refused to sleep where moonlight might touch them. They feared the rays of the moon would kill them.

Fact: February can never have two new or full moons because the shortest time between them is 29.27 days.
Legend: Among the Romans, February was known as the month of purification. Roman religion taught that the "the souls of the just are purified in the moon."

Fact: One U.S. mission to the Moon was aborted. Because the service module oxygen tank ruptured, Apollo 13 was forced to return to Earth after only 5 days and 22.9 hours. The crew was rescued.
Legend: The Moon treasures everything wasted on Earth, such as misspent time and wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, fruitless tears, unfulfilled desires and intentions, and wasted talent.

Fact: Three men who have walked on the Moon are now dead. They are Pete Conrad, Apollo 12 (1930-1999); Alan B. Shepard, Apollo 14, (1923-1998); and James B. Irwin, Apollo 15, (1930-1991).
Legend: The Moon is the receptable of souls between reincarnations and shelters both the dead and the unborn, who are one and the same. The Vedas say all souls return to the Moon after death, to be devoured by maternal spirits. Maoris called the Moon Mother "man-eater." Tartars of central Asia worshipped the moon as the Queen of Life and Death. Africans said the moon searched for men to devour. Greeks often located the Elysian Fields, home of the blessed dead, in the Moon.

To celebrate the 39th anniversary of the historic landing, my son Adil and I set up our telescope and gazed at the full Moon last night. Adil wanted to see Amstrong’s and Aldrin’s footprints on the Moon. Of course, that was not possible but he had a grand view of the craters. I recorded a couple of shots of the craters, below: