My buddy just returned from South Africa, where he caught a few games at the World Cup. The assignment I gave him was to take a picture of the Moon, so he sent me the photograph you see above.
What's so special about a picture of the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere, you say? Well, the Moon is UPSIDE DOWN. Of course I mean that it appears upside down to those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere --
please forgive the hemispherical chauvinism.
So why do we see the Moon differently? It's because we're standing on opposite sides of the Earth.
It took me a while to convince my mom, and I had to use my hands to demonstrate it. So I figured I'd just make an illustration. Here it is:
As you can see, the guy in North America sees the North Pole of the Moon as up from his perspective. The man standing in the middle of the South Atlantic sees the South Pole of the Moon as up. Strange consequences of living on a spheroid world.
Gotta love the Moon.
Totally mind blowing when you look at it that way.
ReplyDeleteI never gave it any thought. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteLive in Canada, from South Africa. Now I understand!
ReplyDeleteThats so crazy!!
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