The moon: twice a day, 900 balloons are released from the Earth | Helen Sullivan

They are weather balloons and they look like hundreds of miniature moonsIf there were no moon, our days would be short - between half and a quarter of the length they are now - and our nights would be dark. The Earth's tilt would change, which would change the seasons. The seas, the oceans, the lakes would not fall flat, but they would be flatter, milder: lower high tides, higher low tides.This makes me think of the Jorie Graham lines: "And the black ocean shows itself in infinite detail because of the moon. / No matter that all is not lit. Much remains because much remains hidden." Samuel Taylor Coleridge's moon is, "suffused o'er all the sapphire Heaven, / Trees, herbage, snake-like stream, unwrinkled Lake, / Whose very murmur does of it partake." Continue reading...