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Here's a photo taken in early twilight by professional space launch photographer Ben Cooper. The SLS/Orion "Artemis 1" Moon rocket was finally being rolled out to the pad for launch tests. The weather and sky were perfect for this sort of thing. And there's the Full Moon rising behind it over the Atlantic. The Full Moon has a habit of rising close to the time of sunset. As it must, of course.

Look at the orientation of the Moon. Do you recognize the maria? Could you fill in the orientation of the Moon's North-South axis? If you do, you'll find that the axis is very nearly horizontal. The Moon is sideways in this photo. As we have discussed recently, the horns of the Moon (not visible at Full Moon so you have to know the maria) point towards the ecliptic poles, near enough to the celestial poles to be useful so long as we're aware that they differ by  23.5°. And on this date, just a few days before the equinox, near sunset from Florida, the ecliptic is nearly vertical. The plane of the Solar System is basically straight up in Florida at sunset in the next few days, stretching from due East to due West. This implies that the north ecliptic pole was very close to true north but lying nearly on the ground just a few degrees above the horizon. And that's why the Moon was sideways for the SLS rollout tonight. 

Frank Reed

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