So the moon is perfectly positioned for me to lie in bed with my head on my pillow and gaze out at her. I'm just contemplating the reasons why she holds such fascination for us. Why do you think this is? What is it about her that draws you?

For me it's the way it is close enough to see detail without any optical aids but somewhere I will never go to. The explorer in me wants to walk on the moon.

The moon's fascination for me is that it is our constant companion, even though from my view its location and form changes so much from one day to the next. I think it is this dynamic of continuity and transformation that attracts me most. I am also struck by how, no matter where I wander the earth, the moon's influence acts on me, and that no matter what our differences, there is something outside myself that unites me in common experience with others.

Not that long ago it seemed to me as though the scientific community had grown bored of the Moon. I was delighted when LM1 reignited the interest that the lack of public funding before had pretty much stifled. I think Mike is spot on that it's something that unites all of us, and as Martin says the level of detail that can be obtained without visual aids yet the teasing realisation that we'll never visit it is something that I suspect pretty much anyone with a cosmic appreciation can sympathize with. It's always there, it always has an affect on the tides that surround us... and yet really we know so little about it. What precisely is it made of? What can it tell us about our own origins?
...
Rambling now