revised February 23, 2010
(This post was originally published by the LasVegasBuffetClub in November, 2007) and republished July 10, 2009
—THIS MONTH’S FULL MOON (THE FULL SNOW MOON) WILL BE 100% FULL ON FEBRUARY TWENTY EIGHTH (2010)—
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At a time when I was making posters, I happened to take a digital (camcorder) photo of a Full Moon. This was in the mid 90s in Las Vegas, Nevada. The clip was shot from the CALIFORNIA HOTEL’S RV Park, in downtown Las Vegas, around midnight.
Many times, over the years, I’ve had the occasion to process the image with a Photoshop-type program. At some point I saw a face of “THE MAN IN THE MOON” – maybe the face I’d heard about since I was a little kid. I never quite knew exactly what the face looked like, although I thought I did. I always thought that I vaguely saw something that looked like a face. It had two big O’s for eyes (Mares Serenitatis and Tranquillitatis) and a big O (Mare Nubium) for a mouth…It seems as though everyone sees a different face – or a rabbit, dog or lion.
Seeing the moon up close and personal via the photographic image, several faces presented themselves for perusal. The following is my take on those faces in the Moon:
Turns out that, at least, one imaginative glance reveals a small chinned (or chinless) figure wearing “shades.” It sort of reminds me of Phil Spector wearing sunglasses…Actually, there are several faces depending on the quality/resolution of the image…The ears, noses, eyes and other features of these “faces” are the darker patches (flat surfaces) of the moon or “seas” (Mare – Maria.)
The aforementioned photo is represented by a reproduction (left) of that clip, pretty much as it looked that night in Las Vegas. Although is has been minimally processed the image is a good representaion of how the full moon appears on any (Full Moon) night with slight magnification.
……….……….The image (on the right) is offered with exaggerated graphics to help define the first face: The figure’s right sunglass lens (the circle on the upper left) is Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity,) the circle on the upper right (figure’s left lens) is Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of tranquillity) and Mare Vaporum (Sea of Vapours) is the figure’s nose (no graphic.)
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Doing a mind/sight shift, there also seems to be an image (below left) of a face that looks very much like Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse – looking down toward 8 o’clock. In this view the sunglass lenses (Mares Tranquillitatis & Serenitatis) become Mickey’s ears and Mare Vaporum is Mickey’s left eye (exagerated graphics show ears, eye and nose.)
……….……….BBC image on the right is of a 14th Century fresco from Austria – click to read more…
This is an image from Walt Disneys’ 1928 film: “Steamboat Willie” – MoMA’s website.
Watch “Steamboat Willie” on YouTube.
Next is an image of the Full Moon from SEDS’ website.
Click this to access: SEDS” website…
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“LOOKS LIKE PHIL OR MICKEY TO ME.”…NOAO image credits…
There’s another image of a face just under Mickey’s eye (facing left with a protruding tongue, two eyes, a nose and a well defined chin.)
“Thus, in a very real sense, Iwerks can be called true the creator [sic] of Mickey Mouse because Iwerks, and not Disney, originated the character?” read entire story… (This fact is not necessarily relevant to the main point:) All of the faces are interesting. The Mickey Mouse face begs questioning. My question is: Did Walt Disney / UB Iwerks get their inspiration for the Mickey Mouse character from an image on the Moon?
Walt Disney Helped Wernher von Braun Sell Americans on Space…
(Another) Article on Von Braun and Walt Disney…
(If you know anything about the Mickey Mouse/Moon connection, please e-mail: www.lasvegasbuffetclub@msn.com)
“This is not a scientific page; It’s an artist’s page.”
—THIS MONTH’S FULL MOON WILL BE 100% FULL ON FEBRUARY TWENTY EIGHTH (2010)—
Take me to The LasVegasBuffetClub’s home page…
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