The Night Watch and Moon Gazing
Moon gazing.
Lovers’ moons.
Cows jumping over moons.
Goodnight Moons.
Man has had a love affair with that great silver orb probably since he first spied it washing his nights in light, shading his lover’s legs, or maybe just waxing and waning or doing cool things like turning copper.
When Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606, man did not dare consider ever setting foot on the moon. He hardly dared consider his own place in the universe. But Rembrandt surely considered the moon for he played with light and dark, brightness and shadow. This 17th century Dutch old master is most famous, perhaps, for his painting The Night Watch, which is just one of some 600 paintings he is credited with.
Rembrandt was a prolific experimenter, painting on canvas instead of common board and painting diverse subjects. He also is the creator of hundreds of etchings and even more drawings. But if you want to learn about moon walks and presidential dreams, read on, fair reader!
To see some of Rembrandt’s work, visit this link:
www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jlp
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 headed towards the moon with Neil Armstrong as commander, “Buzz” Aldrin as the lunar module pilot, and Michael Collins as the command module pilot.
This was the spacecraft, folks! This is the one that carries the first man to walk on the moon.
To see pictures from this voyage as well as to read (or hear) the astronauts report on the journey, go to this link: www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/
FirstLunarLanding/toc.html
In a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 25, 1961, President Kennedy asked Congress and the nation to make it a goal to safely land (and return) the first man to walk on the moon. Here is an excerpt from that speech
Now it is time to take longer strides–time for a great new American enterprise–time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.
I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshalled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.
Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of leadtime, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own. For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last. … But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.
I therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goals:
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
