Wonders of the Moon

# Fly me to the moon

# Let me play

# Among the stars... #

Our fascination with the moon has never been greater.

SHE SQUEALS

Across Britain, people turn out in droves to capture its magic.

Millions of us share our pictures of it,

and today, stunning, detailed imagery

is revealing the moon as never before.

Now we are going to unlock the secrets

of the moon's monthly life cycle.

# Fill my heart with song... #

From waxing moons to waning moons,

full moons to supermoons...

# You are all I long for... #

..we'll see how the power of the moon shapes life on Earth...

LION ROARS

..explore its mysterious dark side...

..and discover how the moon's journey around our planet

can sometimes deliver one of Nature's most awe-inspiring sights -

a total solar eclipse.

ALL CHEER

And at the end of a period of intense lunar activity,

we will find out just why supermoons are special.

# I love... #

You'll never gaze at the moon in the same way again.

# ..You! #

The full moon appears in our night sky every 29.5 days.

That's the time it takes to travel around our planet.

But, sometimes, when you look up,

you see something quite extraordinary -

a full moon that looks bigger and shines brighter.

It's a supermoon.

And in just 12 weeks,

a trio of dazzling supermoons has lit up our night sky...

..turning us all into moon-gazers.

To understand why we have supermoons,

or any of the wonders of the moon,

we are going to follow the moon on its epic journey around our planet.

We begin somewhere rather unexpected -

in Coventry Cathedral...

..where something remarkable has been created.

An exact replica of the moon,

showing every crevice and crater,

just half a million times smaller.

ALL MURMUR

This touring artwork has captured the imagination

of the British public.

More than 100,000 people have flocked to see it.

MURMURING

It's very beautiful. You almost feel like you're there.

It doesn't just put smiles on faces,

it can also show why the moon looks the way it does at night.

From Earth, we can see the moon above us

because, just like our planet, it's lit by the sun.

As it journeys around us,

our view of the side that is lit by the sun changes.

So we gradually see less and less of this waning moon from Earth.

Once the moon's between us and the sun,

we can't see any of the side that's lit

and it seems to disappear.

When the moon re-emerges,

the side that is lit becomes visible again in the shape of a crescent.

This is a waxing moon

that appears to grow as the moon continues around us.

And it finally ends its monthly journey

as the familiar face of the full moon.

MUSIC: It's Only A Paper Moon by Ella Fitzgerald

# Say it's only a paper moon... #

The full moon appears in our night sky as regular as clockwork

and offers some an opportunity to play.

# ..if you believed in me

# Yes, it's only a canvas sky... #

But when a supermoon is on the cards...

..moon-gazers will go to the ends of the Earth to see it.

# ..if you believed in me. #

It's 3rd December, 2017,

and the first of our current trio of supermoons

is due to make an appearance in the night sky.

One of the best places in the world,

where a good view of it is virtually guaranteed, is here -

the Roque de los Muchachos in the Canary Islands.

At 2,500 metres, the peak is usually above the clouds

which makes it a perfect spot for astronomers...

..and it's where mountain biker Jordi Bago is headed.

It will be a really long climb.

I will have to put in a lot of effort

because it is really high, the mountain.

It's going to be cold.

We're going to cross some of the big, deep clouds on the way.

It's a tough ride to the top...

..but Jordi makes it just in time.

At 6.30 on the dot,

the curtain goes up.

MUSIC: Supermoon by KD Lang

# Supermoon

# Where all the diamond deals are made... #

At first, coloured and distorted by Earth's atmosphere,

the moon is barely recognisable.

# ..Move along

# And if my smile... #

When I see the moon rising, over the clouds,

it's amazing, the feeling, because I never saw a moon like this.

It was so intense, like fire.

# Would you like to start a river? #

As the supermoon clears the clouds,

it's revealed in all its glory.

# Our life savings aren't enough

# Have to lobby hard and make it... #

The spectacle is enough to bring astronomers out

from their observatories.

There's something about the moon, isn't there?

I mean, it inspired the initial astronomy,

that initial curiosity to study the universe.

I mean, well, without the moon, we wouldn't really have telescopes.

If you see a supermoon, definitely take that opportunity

to go outside and check it out. It's really beautiful.

The reason the supermoon looks bigger and brighter

is because it's closer to Earth than usual.

At its furthest, the moon is over 400,000 kilometres away.

But a supermoon can be some 50,000 kilometres nearer

and shine almost a third brighter.

Being up here in the mountain

makes me feel that I'm closer to the moon and I see it really big.

I never had that feeling that the moon could be so close to me.

It was amazing, because I never see something like that in my life

and I think I will never forget that.

The moon is sometimes closer to us

because its path around our planet isn't circular.

It's oval...

..and that path changes slightly from month to month.

ALL MURMUR

But it's when the moon is at its closest

and coincides with a full moon that we have a supermoon.

Today we can predict the arrival of the full moon

and even a supermoon with pinpoint accuracy.

But for centuries, people looked up at the moon

and wondered just what it was that was lighting up their night skies.

There's definitely stories about the moon in all cultures -

the Maoris, Indians, Chinese...

And I think the moon is one of those unifying symbols

across the planet, just because it's so easy to see.

CLANKING

Astronomers at the Royal Observatory in London

have been looking up at the moon for more than 300 years

with increasingly large telescopes.

But Dr Sheila Kanani is just as fascinated

by the fables as the facts.

SHUTTER CLICKS

What we can see here is our familiar

crescent phasing into a full moon.

And when the moon becomes full,

you can see all sorts of different features.

Here you can see the man on the moon -

the eyes...

the nose...

and the mouth.

In Britain, many thought the man on the moon had

the bloated face of a heavy drinker.

And that's one of the reasons

so many pubs are named after the moon.

But early astronomers believed that the moon was a world

just like our own.

Thinking the dark patches were seas, they gave each its own name.

The left eye, as we're looking at it, is the Sea of Serenity.

It's about 700km across.

It turns out that those seas are actually

the remains of volcanic eruptions on the surface of the moon.

But these same features can mean different things

to different people.

Other cultures see different features on the moon.

So, for example, Chinese cultures

see a rabbit, and the two ears

are on the right-hand side of the moon as we look at it,

with the body of the rabbit curling round the face of the full moon.

And that rabbit is said to be grinding the elixir of life.

The elixir is said to be a magical potion that makes

a goddess of the moon immortal.

We now know the moon is home to neither man nor rabbit,

but is thought to be rock that broke off from Earth

and other space debris from a cosmic collision

more than four billion years ago.

It's been our constant companion ever since.

The moon, particularly the full moon for me,

makes me feel like I'm not alone, because it's always there,

like a companion in the sky, looking down on me.

Few things match the stunning beauty of rolling countryside

lit by a dazzling full moon.

But for our ancestors,

it had a rather more practical purpose.

During the harvest, the brightly-lit nights around

the full moon gave farmers

extra time to gather in their crops.

And even today, in some cultures,

the arrival of this harvest full moon

is as eagerly awaited as Christmas.

It's October, and in Hong Kong the rush hour has come early.

Tonight sees the arrival of the full harvest moon...

..and the beginning of a national holiday.

CHEERING

In the old neighbourhood of Tai Hang,

20,000 incense sticks are bringing a fire dragon to life.

Almost 70m long, it leads an annual parade

through the streets to mark this Mid-Autumn Festival...

..but the real star of this festival is the harvest moon itself.

BOAT BLOWS HORN

Down at the harbour, people are gathering, waiting to see

the full moon when and if it appears from behind the clouds.

-For astronomer Patrick Lao...

-You want to see, yeah?

..the Mid-Autumn Festival is

a heaven-sent opportunity to share his passion for the moon.

When I look at the moon, I feel very happy, and I also want other

people to see the moon through a telescope

and feel my happiness.

HE LAUGHS

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Others have gathered on the beaches.

-WOMAN:

-I think we are very lucky today.

-CHILDREN:

-Yeah.

I really think we might just see the moon.

Traditionally the festival is a time

when families get together under the light of the moon.

-ALL:

-Wow!

It's so bright!

In the Mid-Autumn Festival we have the full moon,

and full means round in Chinese language.

Round can make up a phrase called tuan yuan, which means unite, or...

Did you see the moon? It's beautiful.

THEY CHATTER

-GIRL:

-It's so round and bright.

So it's a time for people to celebrate the love of the family.

The star of the show is still to put in an appearance.

And as the minutes tick by, the tension mounts.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

HE LAUGHS

But at last, patience is rewarded.

SHE SCREAMS

PATRICK LAUGHS

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

The moon's appearance has made the festival complete.

The crowds will be back in exactly 12 full moons from now

to try and see it again.

The regularity with which

the full moon appears makes it

a perfect way to measure the passage of time.

In fact, the word month originally comes from moon.

And many celebrations, such as Easter and Passover,

are based on this lunar calendar.

But it's not just humans that use the full moon

to synchronise their activities.

The same thing happens in the natural world -

nowhere more so than amongst one of the world's largest

living organisms, Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

It's springtime in the Southern Hemisphere.

Beneath the ocean surface,

nature's greatest mass breeding event is about to take place.

Each of these corals is home to thousands of tiny creatures...

..and they have evolved an ingenious way to reproduce, using moonlight.

On a few special nights of the year,

around the full moon,

when the water temperature is just right,

the corals release their eggs and sperm...

..all at once.

They only live for a few hours, so releasing them

into this blizzard gives the eggs

the best chance of being fertilised.

The exact details of what triggers this mass release

remains something of a mystery.

But it seems that corals can detect the intensity of light,

and use the dazzling light around a full moon

to time their reproduction

to perfection.

CHILDREN GASP

# I see a bad moon a-rising

# I see trouble on the way... #

For centuries, the full moon

conjured images of danger and savagery.

THEY ROAR AND LAUGH

SHE HOWLS

Myth has it that the werewolf shape-shifts

under the light of the full moon.

Not to mention moon madness -

the word lunacy comes from Luna, the Greek word for the moon.

None of these myths are to be believed,

but that's not to say that they don't contain a little bit of truth.

Because in the life cycle of the moon,

we might find clues as to how, in the dim and distant past,

we evolved our deep-seated fear of the dark.

As the moon continues its journey around the Earth,

the face that is lit becomes increasingly hidden from us...

..and we see less and less of it in the night sky.

This waning moon reflects less light back to Earth...

..and the nights gradually become darker.

And it's now that danger lurks.

GROWLING

In the heart of the Serengeti in east Africa,

the great drama of hunter and hunted is played out on a grand scale

during the different phases of the moon.

This nocturnal world is being revealed

with the help of lowlight photography.

And what that shows us is that when the moon is on the wane

and nights are darker...

..it is far easier for a predator to stalk its prey.

The same is true for us.

A study of 500 lion attacks on humans in Tanzania

found that the risk of being attacked under the waning moon

is trebled.

So it could be our innate fear of darkness

and the myths that have grown up around it

stem from the very real dangers our ancestors faced

under the dark nights of the waning moon.

Considering the moon is so far away

and is only a quarter of the size of Earth,

it punches well above its weight.

The moon's gravity is powerful enough to pull our oceans

towards it, which means it controls our tides.

And where the tides ebb and flow on the border between land and sea,

life flourishes.

When you think of the world's most nutritious environments,

a few images spring to mind -

tropical rainforests,

coral reefs,

but probably not Norfolk's Wash.

But despite appearances, tidal mudflats are every bit

as nutritious as these more exotic locations...

..as long as you know where to look,

like conservationist Jim Scott.

Well, at first glance, you can't really see anything.

But when you start to come out and actually dig around in it,

you'll find all sorts of things.

Ragworms, lugworms, all sorts of shellfish.

Baltic tellin, cockles.

Just one square metre of mud produces the energy equivalent

of 20 chocolate bars.

As a result, these tidal mudflats

are a magnet for migrating and overwintering birds.

Hundreds of thousands of them arrive every year.

You must think of these mudflats, really, almost a little bit like

motorway service stations.

So birds are...on their migrations, they're dropping in,

feeding up, fuelling up for their long-distance journeys

and then moving on to the next estuary.

Without the moon's pull on our oceans, these tidal mudflats

and the creatures that live in them wouldn't exist.

The Earth rotates once a day,

and when Britain is facing the moon, the moon's gravity pulls

the sea towards it, creating the tide that rises here in Norfolk.

As that rising tide gradually covers the mudflats,

the birds are pushed further inshore.

The biggest flock of all are the knots.

They're named after Cnut,

the medieval king who, legend had it, tried to stop the tide.

But nothing can,

and soon the mudflats are completely submerged.

The birds have no option but to take to the air.

# Fly me to the moon

# Let me play among the stars

# And let me see what spring is like on

# Jupiter and Mars

# In other words... #

It's only then that it becomes apparent just how many birds

depend on the moon's power over the oceans for their food.

There must be 20,000 birds coming off the last bit of mud,

right past us and into the lagoons.

They're a fantastic sight.

The birds head inland.

They'll wait here until this part of the Earth has turned

away from the moon, then the tide will go out

and once again it will be dinner time on the tidal mudflats...

..all courtesy of the moon.

As the moon continues its journey, it appears to get thinner

and thinner in the sky.

Until, halfway through the month,

the moon has moved directly between the Earth and the sun.

Now no light falls on the side that faces us.

It is in complete shadow.

Known as a new moon, here on Earth we can no longer see it.

But now it's aligned with the sun.

The combined influence of the sun

and the moon's gravity pulls the oceans even further...

..generating the very highest tides.

And there's one place in the UK where once a month the new moon

produces a monster.

In a stretch of water off the coast of Wales,

something is stirring.

-I reckon we can get a couple of hours out there today, eh?

-Yeah.

-Hopefully, if the wave holds up.

-If we can get there

-before the wave starts forming and then we'll be able to see.

-Yeah.

Yes, Tommy, take us away.

Elite kayaker Sam Charlesworth

and his friends are going to meet it.

Yeah, fully fell in love with the place.

Like, this is probably the most beautiful

and intimidating place I've kayaked in the UK.

These are the infamous Bitches and Whelps rocks.

According to a local legend,

Viking invaders likened the large

rocks to snarling dogs protecting the smaller rocks,

their pups or whelps.

But they really come alive once the new moon starts

to bring in the tide.

We'll always be scanning the tide tables looking for the best tide.

There's definitely an element of excitement that comes about

when you see a 7.2m or 7.3m tide.

On the highest tides, one quarter of a million tonnes of water is

forced through the rocks every second.

Then out of the chaos, something special emerges -

a static wave.

As the moon pulls the water over the rocks,

the ocean floor pushes it upward into a wave that

remains in the same place for as long as the tide continues to flow.

You've probably only got a two-hour window of it really working well.

Yeah, you want to make the most of that time that you've

got on the water.

MUSIC: The Bitch Is Back by Elton John

Woo!

Even for kayakers of this calibre,

there's no guarantee they'll get to ride the wave.

-Oh-h-h...

-Ah!

Yeah, it can be a real battle.

You're just trying to find the speed in the wave, trying to feel the...

Once you can start to work less,

then you know that you're on the right track.

And it's just about finding where the easiest place to be is.

# Moon river... #

The incoming tide is now rushing over the rocks at speeds of up to 40kmh.

But as long as the kayakers can find the wave's sweet spot,

surfing it is almost effortless.

# Two drifters

# Off to see the world... #

I think it's incredible that having something so far away -

the moon - can create something so unique, so special here

and yeah, you're surfing, that's the dream!

Yet nothing can last for ever.

As this part of the Earth turns away from the moon,

as suddenly and imperceptibly as the wave emerged,

it disappears again.

It will be a month before the new moon will return

and conjure up another monster wave for Sam and his friends to ride.

Yeah, there's a lot of things that make a good session out here.

And we scored today.

Just over two weeks into its monthly journey,

the moon has travelled more than halfway around the Earth.

From where we're standing, the lit side of the moon

now starts to become visible again.

And the moon reappears, magically it seems,

in the faint whisper of a crescent.

But, for some, it has an extra-special meaning.

MAN CHANTS IN ARABIC

Within the Islamic world, it's the first sighting of

the crescent moon that marks the beginning of each month.

And the faithful go looking for it, whether they are in Mecca,

Istanbul, Jakarta...

..or Croydon.

CHANTING IN ARABIC

Every month, the congregations from the local mosques

gather on the hills around Croydon,

to try and spot the new crescent moon.

The crescent moon starts the month in the Islamic calendar

and the tradition is that we go out and we look for the moon

because the Prophet Muhammad said,

"The month starts when you sight the moon."

Tonight, amateur astronomer Imad Ahmed is leading the search...

According to my compass, what do you think...?

-Does that look...

-..along with local imam Suliman Gani.

We may be able to see the crescent today.

But with the British weather, that's easier said than done.

It's quite difficult to sight, not just because of the cloudy skies

in the UK, but because the new crescent moon is really thin.

-OVER PHONE:

-Then you can easily see above the glare...

For many years, British Muslims have relied on word from abroad

that the crescent moon has been sighted.

Now there's a growing network of local moon-spotters in the UK.

OK, I've got a couple come in from York Astronomical Society,

we will contact you after the sunset.

But for Imad, seeing the new crescent moon means much more

than simply marking the start of the month.

Symbolically, in Islamic culture, in poetry,

and symbolically to me, the moon represents light amidst darkness.

It represents something that can guide you when you can't see

and so when the waning moon disappears into the night sky,

we have a few days of darkness,

but the new crescent emerges again, and to me, that represents

light and it represents hope.

Once the sun has set and the sky darkened,

all eyes turn to the horizon.

RADIO CHATTER

THEY SPEAK IN ARABIC

OK, see where my hand is?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

Right, look... Not the first cloud, the second, the third...

After me...

THEY CHANT IN ARABIC

When Muslims do sight the crescent moon,

they can recite a prayer. It's a really special prayer

and you directly address the moon

and you say to the moon,

"Oh, moon, your God and my God is Allah."

And I think it's a fascinating, interesting way that we are

being directed to really connect and commune with nature,

specifically the moon.

Millions of us gaze up at the moon over the course of the month,

watching it wane and wax,

but that's only half the story.

And that's because we only ever see half the moon.

There's another side, that we never get to see from Earth.

It's known as "the dark side".

I'll see you on the far side of the moon.

Every day of his working life, space scientist Noah Petro

pays a visit to the dark side.

# I'll see you on the dark side of the moon... #

I have always been a bit of an outlier

and so, I mean, I love all areas of the moon equally

but I love some more equally than others.

From his base at Nasa, the US space agency,

Noah is fed a stream of data from a satellite orbiting the moon.

Put your nose right up against the surface of the moon.

Craters upon craters upon craters upon craters.

You can lose yourself.

From some 40km above the moon, the lunar reconnaissance orbiter

captures the most detailed picture of its surface ever taken.

So here is our beautiful far side of the moon.

A hemisphere only a lunar scientist could love.

We're going to do a computer-generated

fly-by to the far side of the moon.

One of the surprising things that everyone sees

when we look at the far side of the moon, is that it's lit.

That's because people expect the dark side of the moon to be dark

but, just like the near side of the moon,

the far side of the moon gets illuminated every day.

At any moment during the moon's journey around our planet,

the light on the far side of the moon is the exact opposite

of what we're seeing from Earth.

So when our side of the moon is in shadow,

the far side of the moon is fully lit.

The far side wasn't seen at all until 1959,

when a Soviet probe completed the first orbit of the moon.

The first Earthlings to reach the far side were also Soviet

when, in 1968, two tortoises were launched into orbit.

But to this day it still remains largely unexplored,

which is why Noah finds it so intriguing.

If I were to be given a ticket to go anywhere on the moon,

the one place I would go to first would be

on the far side of the moon, Shackleton crater.

Sunlight only comes in at really steep angles.

That means it's very cold, about -173 degrees Celsius.

Some of those shadowed areas have never seen sunlight

since they formed. Millions, billions of years, perhaps,

have been in permanent shadow.

The Shackleton crater and the surrounding south pole regions are,

you know, really beckoning us to go explore and find out what's there.

Before Noah went over to the dark side,

his first passion was the side we see from Earth.

That's thanks to the Nasa Apollo missions of the 1960s

and '70s that put the first humans on the moon.

I'm going to need to find Apollo 12, that's a hard landing site to find.

Using data from LRO, you know, we can trace their steps, literally,

by seeing their footprints preserved in the lunar surface.

The moon doesn't have an atmosphere,

so there's no rain or wind to wash away the marks we left behind.

In these images you can see the boot prints that both astronauts,

Alan Bean and Pete Conrad,

left behind during their two EVAs on the surface.

And you can see their trace around the crater.

So one of the beautiful things about the Apollo 12 landing site

is that you can essentially, in one image,

retrace their entire adventure on the moon.

# Giant steps are what you take

# Walking on the moon

# I hope my neck don't break... #

For Noah, these close up photos taken by astronauts have an additional significance.

At the end of the mission, in order to be able to launch from the

moon surface, the astronauts would jettison any unnecessary weight.

Amongst the items were their backpacks,

containing their life support systems.

Each is signed by the engineers that built them,

including Noah's father.

You know, sitting out there, on the surface of the moon,

are 12 backpacks that contain my dad's name on them.

Which is pretty cool!

You know, these pictures have a deep meaning for me,

not just because of the science that comes out of them

and what they represent, but what they represent to me,

my family, and why I'm doing this today.

Just 12 humans have left their boot prints on the moon.

Alan Bean is one of them.

Nobody is good enough to deserve a chance of all

the people on Earth to go do this.

No-one is that good, relative to others, do you see?

I wasn't either, OK?

But I got lucky.

On 19th November, 1969, after a journey of four days, Alan and

fellow astronaut Pete Conrad began their final descent to the moon.

What Pete and I were thinking about when we came down -

is this going to work? That's what you were thinking about.

Then you get down, you look out the window, you know,

you pat each other on the back, you know, we're here!

# If you believe

# They put a man on the moon

# Man on the moon

# If you believe... #

It was a moment Alan had spent years training for.

They had taken us

to places on Earth that they thought were like the moon, like Iceland.

There's a lot of volcanic... We knew this was all volcanic,

so we went there.

When you get to the moon, it's not exactly like that,

but it's pretty much like it.

And that's part of the training.

But no amount of training could prepare Alan for the physical

reality of this alien world.

'It's beautiful, it really is.'

We get there and we're at one sixth gravity,

it was like suddenly I was the strongest that I'd ever been.

One of the experiments I carried out was 420lb on Earth.

I carried it around on the moon, I couldn't even lift on Earth.

I mean, I knew why, but when you're doing it, you're thinking,

"Wow! Man, am I strong!"

You know, "This is the greatest day!"

Alan spent two days and one night on the lunar surface,

collecting rocks and carrying out experiments.

Then it was time for the perilous business of returning

to the command module, orbiting above.

You can't hear things in space.

When we lifted off, we don't hear anything.

We had to burn our engine six minutes and three seconds.

I can remember, you know, looking at my watch and the timer.

OK, that's three minutes.

And I'd say something like, "I wonder how our engine's doing."

It could be down there sputtering or getting ready to poop,

or who knows!

It's got to keep going for another couple of minutes.

And sure enough, it did, and shut down.

I can remember thinking, when that shut down, I thought,

"We will get back to Earth."

One of the thoughts I had coming back,

we were on the moon 30 hours, and we'd trained for years

and thought about it for many more years.

And I thought, you know, "Is this all there is?

"Is it over this quick?"

Those few brief hours have shaped the rest of Alan's life.

After leaving Nasa,

he turned his painting hobby into a full-time occupation.

Of the 215 paintings he's made since,

each and every one has featured the moon.

I was there, I know the stories, I know what it looks like.

But if I don't do this, these paintings won't...

..exist and the stories that go with them.

Even for those few that have stood on the moon,

it's a place that remains enigmatic and wondrous.

But I'll tell you what's different now, when we were going to the moon,

when I'd look at the moon at night, it seemed pretty close.

It didn't seem hard to do.

It didn't seem far away.

When I look at the moon now, it seems so far away.

And I say, you know, "How did we ever get there?"

After 29.5 days the moon has completed

its epic journey around our planet.

In that time, many of us will have looked up

and enjoyed its simple beauty.

Yet although this cycle is constant, not all lunar orbits are the same.

The moon's irregular path around our planet means that sometimes

the Earth, sun and moon fall into a very particular alignment.

And when the Earth is exactly in the middle,

it casts a shadow over the moon.

This is a lunar eclipse.

The light reaching the moon passes through the Earth's atmosphere,

which colours it a deep red.

So it's known as a blood moon.

Sometimes it's the other way round.

It's the moon that casts its shadow on the Earth.

This happens when the moon comes directly between

the Earth and the sun...

..and the moon blocks out the sun.

A total solar eclipse.

21st August, 2017.

America is waking up to a special day.

For the first time in almost a century,

a total eclipse will sweep the nation from one coast to the other.

This rare event means different things to different people.

Many Native Americans will follow the traditional custom

of hiding away and quiet reflection.

Some native tribes consider the eclipse a bad omen.

There are some native Americans that think

it's a renewal of things on Mother Earth

like the animals, the water, the trees and us as human beings.

Because the sun is so much larger than the moon,

the moon's shadow is only around 110km across.

And millions of people are racing to get in its path.

Joel Harris has been chasing the moon's shadow for the past 40 years.

After 19 of these, you'd think they're all the same,

but they're actually quite different.

Joel's one of just six people to have spent more than an hour

in totality - that brief moment when the moon blots out the sun.

Today, in Wyoming, he's hoping to add a further 2.5 minutes to his

tally, along with a coach-load of eclipse chasers he's leading.

I've been planning it for four years.

Right, for over just two minutes of work.

Or two minutes of something.

Experience!

# Moon shadow, moon shadow

-# Moon shadow, moon shadow...

-#

Further east, in the city of St Louis,

the students of Yeatman-Liddell School

are also heading to the eclipse path,

in the hands of school principal, Dr Leslie Bonner.

Oh, my goodness, I think they're extremely excited.

They're putting their glasses on, taking them off,

they've got their T-shirts on.

They are asking questions, looking at the sky, just trying to

figure out exactly what to expect

once we get to see this total eclipse.

Yes, they are extremely excited.

I think the staff may be just as excited as they are.

It's getting... It's getting to...

Are you getting excited?

I am excited, but I am really nervous, too.

Leslie grew up in a similar neighbourhood to her students.

Seeing an eclipse as a child inspired her to study science.

She's hoping today will do the same for them.

So you see what's actually going to be happening today?

99.9% of our scholars are in the lower socioeconomic status.

Can you see it? This is what you are actually going to see today.

And viewing this eclipse today is what definitely

it's something that puts their eyes on the prize

in regards to what's next in the scientific area.

If proof were needed of the power of the eclipse to shape lives,

you need look no further than Joel Harris's band of eclipse chasers.

Oh, this one I've been... Actually, if you really want to know,

I've been planning this since I was 11 years old.

Here we are, 54 years later, after my first eclipse,

and this one I'm going to see

because the last one in Maine on July 20th, 1963

got clouded out at the last minute.

I think this will be just my fifth.

You think it's just an item to check off your bucket list,

but, no, it's like forever on your bucket list.

Every time you see one, you want to see the next one.

We're really excited about it and we're just a few seconds away.

I've lost Mike but I'm going to look back at the sun

while I still have the opportunity.

10.00am, and on the West Coast, the eclipse has already begun.

It is arriving at the United States.

It's over the Pacific Ocean and about to reach Oregon.

This is the celestial...

Then, as Earth turns, that shadow sweeps over its surface,

plunging one place after another into a deep twilight.

Left in its wake are wave after wave of awestruck viewers.

This is the celestial event that we've all been waiting

and anticipating for years.

Hold-up, wait a minute.

As the students of Yeatman-Liddell arrive into the eclipse path,

it's already underway.

SHE SQUEALS AND SCREAMS

Oh, my gosh. Did you see that?

Oh, my gosh!

It kind of look like a Pac man.

Yeah, you can see like a half sun

-but you can see the moon and the sun.

-Yeah, you can see the moon.

-Yeah, like a crescent.

-Yeah. Like a crescent.

Somebody tell me...

Oh, my gosh, it's so beautiful!

There you go.

In Wyoming, totality is nearing for Joel Harris and his group.

But years of meticulous planning might be

snatched from them at the very last moment.

Get that balloon out of here!

The hot-air balloon is heading right towards the sun.

PEOPLE BOOING

-Look at that. If that crosses.

-Yeah.

-Oh!

PEOPLE SHOUT

Oh, this is like ridiculous!

-Shoot 'em down!

-Everybody blow hard!

With the way now clear, Joel can use all his experience

to lead his troop through the final stages of build-up.

Get ready!

Shadow's coming, it's on those clouds over there!

As the moon creeps across the sun, its shadow races toward them.

Here she comes!

The last rays of light reach through the moon's mountainous edge

to create a diamond ring effect.

Totality!

CHEERING

Totality!

Now all that can be seen of the sun is the corona -

its glowing outer atmosphere,

reaching hundreds of thousands of kilometres into space.

One minute to go.

It's going beautifully dark here, it's becoming twilight.

You've got to put the glasses back on.

I'm going to spend a second looking around at the crowd.

Oh, my goodness. The winds are really picking up.

You know, in this dark area, the winds are just flowing in.

Next, it's St Louis,

and the first time in these children's lives that they'll get

a taste of this rare wonder.

Do you see how dark it's getting?

Oh, my God, isn't it incredible?

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

CHEERING AND SCREAMING CONTINUES

APPLAUSE

Keep your glasses on.

As quickly as totality arrived, it's gone.

But the experience will never leave them.

That's once-in-a-lifetime, right there.

That was nice. I took off my glasses

I actually seen the eclipse before...

it started before I seen the totality of it.

But I can only see it with my only human eyes...

You need to be helping them out.

MUSIC: Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader

# When that moon is big and bright

# It's a supernatural delight... #

Joel has just clocked up another two minutes 30 seconds in totality.

It's emotional.

It's visceral.

It's really something.

I am wonderful. I'm on cloud nine.

Just for today, today has been awesome.

Probably one of the best days of my career as an educator.

This is super cool.

In all, more than 150 million people in America experienced

the shadow of the moon in countless different ways.

Sadly, there won't be a total solar eclipse in Britain

for another 72 years.

But right now, there is one wonder that we can enjoy -

the third of a dazzling trio of supermoons...

..because it isn't just a supermoon.

Unusually, it's the second full moon in a month,

which is known as a blue moon.

And that isn't all...

..in the Far East, they'll also be treated to a lunar eclipse.

So this last supermoon is, in fact, a super-blood-blue-moon.

The first one for 150 years.

Our moon captivates us today as much as it ever has.

Perhaps because moon-gazing is such a simple pleasure,

one we can all enjoy.

All we need to do is look up, just as our ancestors did

and our descendants surely will, and marvel at the wonders of the moon.

# Come and take a trip in my rocket ship

# We'll have a lovely afternoon

# Kiss the world goodbye and away we'll fly

# Destination moon

# We'll travel fast as light till we're out of sight

# The Earth will be like a toy balloon

# Destination, destination moon! #