I’ve always been fascinated by the moon. Perhaps it was my father’s work with NASA from the 1960’s through the 1990’s, or maybe just a fascination with shiny things.
I was sitting in my back yard watching the fireflies and bats at dusk, when I was inspired to grab my camera and take a snapshot of the moon and Venus over the neighbor’s roof.
Okay, I used a tripod for the 2 second exposure, and my camera is a decent super-zoom digital (35-500mm equiv). I wanted to show the Earthlight, so the light side is seriously washed out. The detail would have been better had I used a telescope, but that wasn’t really my objective (so to speak). You can make out the major “seas” in the light reflected from the Earth to the moon and back, again.
As the bats flitted and feasted and dusk drew its curtain, I noticed that I’d watched long enough to see Venus gain on the moon! When I started watching, Venus was halfway down the moon (measured against the neighbor’s roof). By the time I thought to take this picture, Venus was half a moon’s breadth closer to the sun. In the time it takes to watch a prime-time show, I saw direct proof that the moon moves to the east relative to the sun. Well, at least relative to leisurely Venus.
I think that more people should take the time to observe simple things like this for themselves. If they did, my teenage peers might not have saddled me with the nickname “Moonbeam” when I was seen patiently watching the moon move across the sky one summer evening.
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