MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

e ratcheting backwards with every 8th day insertion, 3 times
every two sunths. Using the old names would mean utter
confusion. Here are three name set suggestions:
(1) the names of the 7(8) biggest moons in the solar system:
Luna, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Triton, (Titania)
(2) the names of the 7(8) stars in the Big Dipper: Dubhe,
Merak, Phad, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Alkaid, (Alcor). The
problem with this suggestion is that the Big Dipper is not
visible below latitude 30˚ south on the Moon and some
southern settlements would thus find these names elitist.
(3) [this suggestion is the one this writer personally prefers]
the names of the 7(8) stars of the Pleiades star cluster (and the
attendants of Artemis, a Greek mythological moon goddess):
Alcyone, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, Sterope,
Taygeta, (Pleione and/or Atlas, the parents of the seven
sisters). Pleione could be used for the 8th day inserted in the
mid-sunth weekend, Atlas for the 8th day inserted in every
other sunth-end weekend. The Pleiades can be seen from all
locations on the Moon as they cross the sky above the lunar
equator. The 7-8 date week, again to avoid confusion with the
invariable 7 day period of Earth, could be called the Pleiad.
Time zones?
On the Moon, the Sun rises an hour earlier every 9.5
miles you travel to the east, and that’s at the equator, in a
shorter distance closer to the poles. There is a 24 hour difference
every 12.2˚ or every 230 miles along the equator. It will
be much simpler for all the Moon to have just one time zone.
The fun has just begun. The Sunth-Pleiad solution is
the easy part. Those of you figuring ahead must have realized
that 12 sunths = 354+ days, 11 less than an Earth standard year.
This has always been the problem with counting by
moons, instead of idealized 30-31 day calendar months. On
Earth, while the period between full moons or new moons is a
handy yardstick, the one thing that really matters above all is
the succession of seasons in a 365 day cadence. It is the Solar
year, not the lunar year that is king. Two cultural traditions,
Jewish and Islamic, have adopted lunar calendars nonetheless.
The Jewish calendar attempts to keep step with the
solar year by adding a thirteenth intercalary month, seven years
out of nineteen. [There are 235 lunar months exactly in 19
calendar years of 228 calendar months. This is called the
Metonic Period.] The Moslems make no attempt to keep pace
and end up counting 33 of their years to every 32 of ours (the
time it takes the faster 354 day year to lap the slower 365 day).
On the Moon, Earth’s seasons by which weather
governs agriculture, are of no real concern. Lunar agriculture,
in controlled biospheres, can set its own seasons, and will be
more sensitive to the availability of free sunlight on a sunthly
schedule of two weeks on, two weeks off. Nonetheless, there
will be incentives to keep the lunar sunth year and terrestrial
solar years in step, at least over the long haul. The Moon,
unlike Mars, is in Earth’s backyard, and the sheer volume of
live communications, and the heavy regular traffic in exports
and imports make Earth’s dominant calendar something not to
ignore lightly.
This said, are there any solutions better than the two
mentioned above? The problem with the Jewish solution of
twelve 354 day years of 12 lunar months interspersed with
seven 383-4 day years of 13 lunar months is that the years are
very unequal, a severe handicap for fiscal accounting and
economic management. The Islamic solution is to ignore the
problem and not make any attempt at concordance.
Option A
One possible but radical synthesis is a Metonic Period
sequence of 19 years of 12 lunar months (sunths) of 354 days
each, followed by a once-a-generation cultural, social, and
institutional renaissance period of 7 “catch up” lunar months
(sunths), at the end of which, the lunar and Earth calendars
would again be in step. This would provide equal years for
accounting purposes, and the cultural, social, artistic,
institutional renewal once a generation would be planned,
anticipated, and provide a culturally treasured shot-in-the-arm.
There are problems with this: how do you count anniversaries,
especially for events taking place in the 7 renaissance sunths?
Option B
Perhaps an even more radical solution is to uncouple
the sunth-sequence from the year. We already have a calendar
in which the weekdays are uncoupled from the days of the
month. That is, January 1st can fall on any day of the week.
Months begin in midweek (Mon. thru Sat.) six times out of
seven. We could have a sequence of 235 sunths (repeating
every 19 years) and allow the Calendar Year or New Years
Day to float through the sunths, much as we allow the “First”
to float through the week. The sunths could simply be
numbered 1 through 235 instead of named. Or, easier to sell,
there could be a sequence of 12 names with a thirteenth
intercalary sunth 7 years out of 19, Jewish style. A floating
New Years Day would keep the terrestrial year counting
cadence, while still coupling lunar life to the dayspannightspan
pace of the sunth.
One could hardly fault Jews for suggesting the
wholesale adoption of their lunar calendar complete with the
names they have used for the lunar months for thousands of
years. For a probably pluralist lunar society, this may not be a
diplomatic solution. New neutral sunth names may be in order.
Might we suggest something simple: (u in sun is unaccented)
Firstsun, Secondsun, Thirdsun, Fourthsun, Fifthsun, Sixthsun,
Seventhsun, Eighthsun, Ninthsun, Tenthsun, Eleventhsun,
Twelvethsun, (Leapsun)
Firstsun would begin with the last (if there are two)
new moon (full Earth) in December. In case of two new moons
(full Earths), the first would mark the beginning of Leapsun. In
either case New years Day, January 1st on Earth, would fall
somewhere between Firstsun 1 and Firstsun 29 on the Moon.
Option C
Yet another possible solution would be to have 12
sunths plus 11 extra year end reset days so that all sunths of
any given year would have the having the same date/day
sunrise-sunset pattern, which would be different from year to
year in a pattern cycle that repeats every 19 years (the Metonic
Period again). This solution would allow a set conversion to
terrestrial dates and allow easy tracking of anniversaries.
Because each of the 19 years of the sequence would have a
characteristic pattern, they might be named, much as in the
totemic Chinese system (year of the dog, of the pig, etc.).
Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 51