OTTUMWA — I don’t know if I’m madder about what I found out or that I watched the national broadcast news.

Last Thursday I heard about the probe the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent to the moon in hopes of detecting a water source there.

It wasn’t a polite little probe. It didn’t land nicely — the newscaster said it was the equivalent of an SUV hitting the moon at more than 5,000 miles per hour.

Who’s the genius who thought this was a good idea? Whoever it was must be related to the guy who thought blowing up bombs underground was a safe way to test them.

Sending a speeding SUV to the moon seems like an aggressive action to me. What if someone or something fired back?

What if the moon has something comparable to the San Andreas fault? If the next probe hits such a fault, maybe half the moon will break off and all those pieces will be headed our way.

I’ve always wanted a moon rock but that’s not what I had in mind. So much for all the romance and mystery the moon has given us for centuries. Thanks for stomping my heart, NASA.

And I don’t think the probe will be coming back. That means we’re littering the moon some more. There’s already plenty of space garbage floating around in space or falling to Earth.

NASA officials said living on the moon means a water source must be found there. Are they moving their office? Who’s really moving to the moon? Is it the next penal colony?

OK, on to happier moonbeams. How about blue moons? One is coming up in December. The moon reaches its peak on Dec. 2 and again on Dec. 31 (in our hemisphere).

Some people say folklore designated the second full moon in a calendar month as a “blue moon.” In his article for Sky and Telescope magazine, Phillip Hiscock said the term “blue moon” has been around for more than 400 years.

But, the calendrical meaning has only been around for about 20 years, he added.

Early uses of blue moon were like saying “the moon is made of green cheese.” Or, "he would argue the moon was blue" was taken by the average 16th-century person the same as we would take "He'd argue that black is white."

Using the calendrical meaning, the last blue moon — the second in a calendar month — occurred May 31, 2007. Two full moons in one month may occur in any month out of the year except for February, which is shorter than the lunar cycle.

I use “Llewellyn’s 2009 Daily Planetary Guide” to read an astrological outlook for each week during the year. Pam Ciampi writes the information and is a certified professional astrologer with over 32 years of experience.