Sunrise, Moonrise, Earthrise!

We have all seen countless sunrises and moonrises in our life and their beauty continues to enthrall us. These celestial spectacles have captivated poets for ages, their verses overflowing with the allure of the unknown and the whispers of the divine. One such acclaimed poet was Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, popularly known as just Rumi. He was a poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic, born on September 30, 1207.

Almost 1200 years ago, Rumi observed moonrise and composed the fascinating poem, "At the Twilight", that transcends the physical realm, offering a glimpse of a mystical union. Pardon me for rephrasing Rumi's poem by interchanging the words 'moon' for 'earth', and vice versa, in the following lines: 

"At the twilight, an earth appeared in the sky;

Then it landed on moon to look at me.

Like a hawk stealing a bird at the time of prey;

That earth stole me and rushed back into the sky.

I looked at myself, I did not see me anymore;

For in that earth, my body turned as fine as soul.

The nine spheres disappeared in that earth;

The ship of my existence drowned in that sea."

Famous 'Earthrise' Image

Why did I paraphrase the poem that Rumi produced while pondering over a moonrise?  I wanted to picture in my mind how a cosmic 'earthrise' spectacle would transpire in Rumi's eyes and words! 

Image Credit: NASA/William Anders

Though Rumi couldn't witness 1200 years ago, we had a chance of visualizing an 'earthrise' through an image captured by the Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. After traversing all the way to the Moon in 1969, Bill rediscovered Earth from outer space and snapped a mesmerizing view of our planet, rising above the moon's cratered horizon, with the deep black background of space. 

This image of the Earth, with a small part of its visible surface that faces the moon illuminated, is the single most iconic image of our planet. The image depicted our planet’s loneliness and fragility in a way that no image had ever done before.

Creator of 'Earthrise'

Astronaut William Anders (Photo/NASA)

At the ripe age of 90, would you sit in the driver's seat of a car, even if you are glowing in the evenings of your life?  Not many would do that, but astronaut and pilot William Anders, who clicked the famous 'earthrise' image, went one step further and sat in the pilot's seat of an aircraft. Unfortunately, he died while the older model small plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of Washington state, a few days back on 7 June 2024.

While snapping the image, the astronaut had exclaimed: “Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth comin’ up. Wow, is that pretty!”. Later he said: “Here we came all the way to the moon to discover Earth”.

Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to orbit the moon. This also made Anders one of the first people to leave the bounds of Earth’s orbit. 

Adios, valiant soul, you have once again left our planet's orbit, embarking on a final voyage to a destination unknown!