"The Magnetism of the Moon"
By
José Reyes
The Moon has been around almost as long as our planet Earth. The Moon is seen moving across the skies, it hides out for a few days and shows up again to brighten up the night, but we don't realize the positive powers and the great effects it has on our lives and to everything around us. The relationship between the Moon and the Earth is very intimate and will be for many more years. This beautiful white centennial sphere helps us in many ways to understand more of our existence and our history. To ancient man the Moon was extremely symbolic and marked the dates of significant spiritual events. The Lunar cycle along with the rising and setting of the Sun are the basic building blocks that were used in the development of calendars. Understanding of the movements of Planets and Stars helped us with the seasons and eventually, the 12 month periods that we have in a full year. To learn and view examples of the interesting calendars that were used in ancient times, please take a good look at this interesting website, WWW.Webexhibits.org
The Formation of the Moon
There are 5 Popular Theories explaining the creation of the Moon: (Information gathered throughout the World Wide Web)
1.The
Fission Theory: The
Moon was once part of the Earth and somehow separated from the Earth early in
the history of the Solar System about 50 Billion years ago. The present Pacific
Ocean basin is the most popular site for the part of the Earth from which the
Moon came.
2.The Capture
Theory: The Moon
was formed somewhere else, and was later captured by the gravitational field of
the Earth 5 billions years ago.
3.The Condensation
Theory: The Moon
and the Earth condensed together from the original nebula that formed the Solar
System.
4.The Colliding
Planetesimals Theory:
The interaction of earth-orbiting and Sun-orbiting planetesimals (Very
large chunks of rocks like Asteroids) early in the history of the Solar System
led to their breakup. The Moon condensed from this debris.
5.The Ejected Ring
Theory: A
planetesimal the size of Mars struck the earth, ejecting large volumes of
matter. A disk of orbiting material was formed, and this matter eventually
condensed to form the Moon in orbit around the Earth.
Short History of Moon Exploration
For a short time
in the 60's and in the beginning of the 70's, the Moon made a big splash,
grabbing a lot of headlines during the Apollo missions but it was just used as a
stepping stone for acknowledgement of power and for the self gratifying feeling
of conquest. 
(More
pictures from NASA)
We saw these
beautiful images on TV and were amazed of our achievements and how we managed to
defeat our Russian counterparts again. Then, in the late 70's as we got
involved more in Viet Nam, we grew tired of the Moon and eventually discontinued
our visits there, leaving it to waste again.
More on Lunar Exploration: www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/lunar_missions.html
The 80's and the 90's took us away from the Moon and all the concentration of the space program shifted to the Space Shuttle expeditions. Now, we are in the year 2004 and after the horrific accident of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 the shuttle missions have halted. There is a new Space Shuttle mission in the works but the interest has substantially decreased. (Space Shuttle Launches and History of Missions)
Now Mars is grabbing the headlines as we have placed some robots on its surface. Photo Images of Mars are arousing the minds of the scientific community, as the possibility of living in the red planet are becoming more evident with all the latest advancements. This is good news for the ones who missed the earlier Moon missions because again, the Moon will be aiding us, as a stepping stone to living in Mars. The United States has several projects that they are trying to fund, that present us with the reality of living outside of our beautiful planet in the near future.
The Moon is back in the headlines again and this time for a longer time, as the European and Asian Space programs are routinely launching spacecrafts with satellites, they are also probing its surface and performing all types of experiments.
Japanese Spacecraft "Selene" (Will be traveling to the Moon in the near future)
Moon Phases
The phases of the moon are caused by the relative positions of the earth, sun, and moon. The moon goes around the earth, on average, in 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes. The moon rises and sets every day, appearing on the horizon just like the Sun. The time depends on the phase of the moon. It rises about 30 to 70 minutes later each day than the previous day, so the moon is out during daytime as often as it is at night.
Note: Waxing refers to an increase in light and Waning refers to a decrease in light.
New Moon: The new moon is the phase of the moon when the moon is not visible from Earth, because the side of the moon that is facing us is not being lit by the Sun.
Crescent
Moon:
A crescent moon is
between a half moon and a new
moon, or between a new moon and a half moon.
Half Moon:
A half moon looks like
half a circle and it is sometimes called a quarter moon. This Moon has completed
one quarter of an orbit around the Earth from either the full or new position
and one quarter of the moon's surface is visible from Earth.
Gibbous Moon: A
gibbous moon is between a full moon and a half moon, or between a half moon and
a full moon.
Full Moon: A
full moon appears as an entire circle in the sky.
Moonrise from Earth:
The moon rises and sets every day, appearing on the horizon just like the Sun. The time depends on the phase of the moon. It rises about 30 to 70 minutes later each day than the previous day, so the moon is out during daytime as much as it is out at nighttime. When there is a "New moon", the moon will rise at about the same time the sun rises, and will set at about the same time the sun would set. As the days go by (as it waxes to become a crescent moon, a half moon, and a gibbous moon, on the way to a full moon), the moon rises during daytime (after the sun rises), rising later each day, and it sets at nighttime, setting later and later each night. At the full moon, the times of moonrise and moonset have advanced so that the moon rises about the same time the sun sets, and the moon sets at about the same time the sun rises. As the moon wanes (becoming a half moon and a crescent moon, on the way to a new moon), the moon rises during the night, after sunset, rising later each night. It then sets in the daytime, after the sun rises. Eventually, the moon rises so late at night that it's actually rising around sunrise, and it's setting around sunset. That's when it's a new moon once again.
2004 Calander of Moon Phases: WWW.RXFFish.com
The Powers of the Moon
The Moon has a direct effect on Humans, Animals, Plants and Sea Life. The Moon also has a great affect on the ocean tide and the circulation of water throughout our planet.
Gravity: Spring Tide and Neap Tide
Read About It: 
"The
Major Ocean Currents"
Sea Life
The effects in sea life mostly deal with the moon phases and the tide. Sexual and feeding activities for example; shellfish renew their shells, undergo regeneration and sexual activities in conjunction with the lunar tidal cycle. Their reproductive cycle are also affected by the tidal cycle. Biologists who believe life could have come from the sea state that sea creatures experimented in tidal regions to adapt lungs so they could live on land (Dolphins).
Plants
All plants like tomatoes, cabbage, beans, herbs, that come from the part above
the ground then should be planted during the time between a new moon and a full
moon when the intensity of the light of the moon is increasing (Waxing Period),
for better results.
For the plants that you want the underground section to grow healthier for
example; carrots, potatoes and so on, it is important to plant the seeds during
the time the moon is between a full moon and a new moon and the intensity of
light is decreasing (Waning Period). 48 hours before a full moon is said to help
the plants grow faster. 
Humans and Animals
The subject of lunar phases affecting changes in behavior of humans and animals within the waxing period and especially during a full moon, has been debated for thousands of years, but there are facts and experimental tests performed that suggest significant changes. Well since the moon's magnetic force can create the tide of extremely large bodies of water and incredibly bends the earth into an oval shape, then it should have some kind of effect on humans and animals. I leave you, the reader, to judge it for yourself. Here are several websites that you can check out:
1.www.skepdic.com 5.www.http://journalism.smcvt.edu
2.www.millennium-debate.org 6.www.jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu
3.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 7.www./realmagick.com/articles
4.www.serendip.brynmawr.edu 8. www.news.nationalgeographic.com
Climate Effect on Earth
The moon also has a beneficial effect on extreme climate changes. The Earth spins completely on its axis once every 24 hours and makes a complete revolution of the Sun every 365.25 days. The axis of the Earth's spin is tilted at an angle of 23 degrees and is perpendicular to the plane of the Earth's orbit. This tilt angle gives us our seasons and has not changed in any considerable amount for the last 600 million years. This stability stays constant because the Moon reduces the gravitational pull of both the Sun and Jupiter on the Earth's axis. The moon is slowly drifting away from the Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches a year and when captured by the powerful Sun's gravity in the future and disappears from our skies, then there will be a significant swing in seasonal climate.
Conclusion
I hope the information I provided about the Moon has giving you a better understanding of the Moon and its magnetic forces and most of all I hope I made it simple enough so all the readers could understand it.
