From a sign of evil intent to a symbol of peace and prosperity, humans have long been captivated by the Moon and how it shapes the world around us.
With stargazers expected to look to the skies this week for what is being touted as the "biggest supermoon of the year", it's clear our fascination with Earth's closest celestial object hasn't waned.
"The Moon and the stars, the view of the night sky, can be a wonderful unifying influence."
'It was a huge omen for them'
For centuries, people have claimed the Moon affects human behaviour (although it's important to point out the science doesn't agree).
The word lunacy itself comes from the Latin "luna", meaning moon. As the Macquarie Dictionary notes, the term was originally "applied to a person with a kind of insanity that was thought to have recurring periods dependent on the changes of the moon".
Some Hindu folktales suggest lunar eclipses are caused by a demon, while in ancient Mesopotamia, a "decoy" king would be put in place until an eclipse was over.
"They actually concluded in peace because they were so worried about the Sun disappearing. It was a huge omen for them."
Dr Martin says many different cultures have had is a long tradition in of observing and recording eclipses, and while they "weren't reporting them for the particular reason that we need them now", they've proven useful.
"In order to work out the rotational position of the Earth, it's important for us to try to work out where the shadow of the Moon fell at that time, because the Earth's rotation is actually variable," Dr George says.
"It changes at speed.
"So those records like, for example, 'it went dark in the middle of the day', from a given place somewhere in Europe or somewhere in China, they really helped us to understand more about that variable rotation of the Earth."
'The story is telling you a lot of different things'
Every culture has its own way of "encoding to memory" understandings of the Moon and the role it plays, Duane Hamacher, an associate professor of cultural astronomy at the University of Melbourne, says.
"[People] have developed stories and narrative songs and dances around all of that," he says.
"Those stories not only tell you what's happening in the world around you, but it's going to have the cultural and social connection too.
"The story is telling you a lot of different things, a lot of different layers of knowledge."
Professor Hamacher points to Gedge Togia, a sacred spiritual dance in the Torres Strait, which proved central to the Meriam peoples' legal battle for sea rights in the mid-2000s.
The lyrics are "Gedge Togia, Milpanuka", which translates to "Moon rising over home" in two languages, and describes "the Moon rising over home as Meriam people travelled from Mabuyag to Mer".
"The lawyers for the government were making the argument that the islands were all separate little enclaves that didn't have much connection to each other," Professor Hamacher says.
"So it showed that before colonisation even occurred, [there were] these connections between the islands."
A lasting legacy
While cultural connections to the Moon and the traditions surrounding it vary across locations and time, their legacy remains evident on Thursday.
Celebrations like the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival) take place each year in China, while similar holidays are celebrated in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
"The Moon plays a very important role in Chinese culture, history, literature, philosophy, everything basically," Shengyu Fan, deputy director of languages at ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific, says.
"China is primarily an agricultural country, and our calendar actually is planned around the Moon.
"For thousands of years, Chinese people have been using the lunar calendar in order to know when to plant and when to harvest."
The Moon has come to be known as a "symbol of fulfilment and family reunion", Dr Fan says, and it's not uncommon for women to have the Chinese character for it included in their name.
He says his mother's maiden name incudes the character.
The story of Chang'e — a Chinese goddess who was said to have drunk an elixir of immortality on Earth before fleeing to the Moon — can even be found in the space race.
"So they're called Chang'e 4 and so on, which means basically 'the Moon goddess number four', 'the Moon goddess number five'."
Why are we captivated by the Moon?
Humans have long sought to understand and explain the Moon and all of its complexities — and it's not hard to understand why.
"Once telescopes had been invented, it became clear that its surface is interesting to explore," Richard de Grijs, a professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University, says.
The Moon was the ultimate goal of the USA-USSR space race, Professor de Grijs adds: "A place outside the Earth where humans could actually travel to."
"I do remember that when [Neil] Armstrong and [Buzz] Aldrin went to the Moon, they left a plaque saying, 'We came in peace for all mankind,'" Dr George says.
"I think that was a wonderful, unifying thing. So in that context, I think there is a role there that the celestial objects can play."
