Peter Westenbrink
On the Moon, Apollo 12 Moonwalker Alan Bean noticed he could hide the Earth behind his thumb (Reinert, For all Mankind, 1989). Having that in the back of my mind, I read Achbari and Lunteren’s meteorology essay, ‘Dutch Skies, Global Laws’ (2016), in which the English expression “rule of thumb” was mentioned several times. This expression was new to me. What does it mean?
This “phrase”, as Wikipedia says, “refers to an approximate method for doing something, based on practical experience rather than theory”. This dates back to the 17th century when “quantities were measured by comparison to the width or length of a thumb”. This “width or length of a thumb” made Alan Bean’s thumb light up in my mind.
Achbari and Lunteren’s essay mentions Francis Galton (1822-1911) – the founder of the weather map (1862). The word “thumb” in this “rule of thumb” reminded me that Galton was an expert in fingerprints, having published a book on the subject, Finger Prints, in 1892. Galton had discovered that a person’s fingerprint was unique and could be used for identification. My mind lit up with the memory of Alan Bean’s thumb; more brightly this time. For me it was a revelation: This is how the Moon sees the Earth: as a thumb with a unique fingerprint (and as a weather map).
My thumb surrounded by the TIROS-1, the first television photo of the Earth from space and the first weather satellite photo (1960), and the Luna 3, the first photo of the far side of the Moon (1959). About my thumb: I initially intended to submit this scan of my thumb to the Moon Bound Book, but there would certainly be little left of the thumb lines once the size was reduced to 1 cm². I opted for the thumb-up, so it could hitchhike in the Moon Bound Book, just as the moon since its birth has been hitchhiking with the Earth. Further, the thumb-up is a sign of both approval and disapproval (depending on culture).
The Moon sees the Earth as my thumb. It’s a thumb with a unique fingerprint. If I leave my thumbprint somewhere, for example, on an Earth-based object lying somewhere on the Moon, it can prove that the object is, or has been, mine. It might even help to prove that I myself have been to the Moon. In other words: my thumbprint can identify me and where I have been.
Compare it to a weather map that shows the weather pattern at a specific moment in time, for example, the map from June 20, 1957, at 5:00 a.m. Universal Time (UT) – the moment I was born – near Amsterdam. It was 13.3 degrees Celsius there, cloudy, dry, a moderate northerly wind, force 3, and an air pressure of 1020 mbar. From the perspective of the Moon, this weather pattern, viewed from space, is the thumbprint of the moment of my birth.
Second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, the omniscient Moon sees the constant change in Earth’s weather patterns. Since her birth she has seen them all. She knows all the weather patterns that have ever existed. She has witnessed countless climate changes on Earth. She sees an Earth that’s warming. An Earth where the ice is melting and sea levels are rising. An Earth that’s increasingly on fire.
The Moon has witnessed the Earth’s climate long before the first humanoid appeared on Earth, and how our presence has changed the climate. Through these changes she knows the Earthling. She knows me. She knows my thumbprint. It’s one of the 8.2 billion thumbprints on Earth right now. An Earth where, on June 20, 2025 – my birthday – at 5:00 a.m. Universal Time (UT) there was a bright sunrise with a temperature of 15.6 degrees Celsius (the 15th highest June 20, 5:00 a.m. since I was born and the 11th highest since the 21st century began).
8.2 billion unique Earthlings, 8.2 billion unique identities, each with a unique track record. The best of all the thumbprints the Moon has ever known is Neil Armstrong’s. The Moon loves Neil Armstrong, even though he brought a nasty smell with him; he came in peace for all mankind, but he also left her his garbage. A stain on behalf of all mankind.
The Moon had seen it coming. As an expert in Earth’s weather patterns, she knew about the Butterfly Effect even before the Frenchman Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) saw the first mathematical signs of it (1890); signs of what we now know as the chaos theory. Likewise, The Moon has known since 5:00 a.m. June 20, 1957, that one day there was a chance my birth would lead me writing down this Earth-Moon-thumb-story (*wink*).
My thumb (rotated a quarter turn counterclockwise) modeled after the Apollo 8 Earthrise. As a child I followed the Apollo program on our black and white television and I was also familiar with photos like those of TIROS-1 and Luna 3. I always imagined that one day, being in a spaceship or on the Moon, I would be just like those blurry, sometimes overexposed and often distorted, yet beautiful images. For me as a child, that was what everything looked like in the hostile, mysterious darkness of space. As an artist, I use this view of (being in) space as a reflection on my existence. This "Earthrise" is an example of that.
Peter Westenbrink worked 44 years for the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute known as the KNMI. His profession was doing hourly surface weather observations (day and night), weather balloons (day and night as well) including those for measuring the ozone layer, and he was responsible for the instrument calibrations. He retired in 2024.
As an artist he works with text and images. Fascinated by science, in particular the moon, astronomy and quantum physics, he feels like an explorer especially in his black & white artworks (preferably printed on aluminum so that the white patterns behave as reflections). He’s following what Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott said when he stepped on the moon as the 7th person: “Man must explore”. Hopefully, his art will encourage this too.
Photo: Angeliek de Jonge ©
