Moon History from the Backyard: Public, Digital, DIY

Google Earth has a Moon feature within its main program, and the below video demonstrates how a person might take their laptop to the backyard some evening during a full moon, and compare the Google Earth Moon model and the uploaded human features on it with the moon that is right in front of them, real time.

This video below begins by showing the location where I snapped a photo of the moon one evening, in the autumn of 2010, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I did minimal prep work before starting my camera, taking the viewer through what turned into almost a six minute Edupunk tutorial. Because of this, I mistakenly referred to a lunar landing craft as a rover. But that is the nature of real-time lecture. Mistakes are made. It happens. Acknowledge them, correct them, and move on. Or preserve them and use it as a point of teaching.

Anyhow, the location where the still moon photo was shot happens to be just down the road from the University of North Dakota’s Department of Space Studies.