Friday, December 12, 2008

Big Moon




Did anyone see the moon tonight? I was taking off to meet Eric at an Allstate holiday party when I caught it coming up over the lake. It was literally stunning. My car swerved. According to the net (yep, the net), "Each month the Moon makes a full orbit around the Earth in a slightly oval-shaped path, and tonight it will swing by the Earth at its closest distance, or perigee. It will pass by 356,613km (221,595 miles) away, which is about 28,000km closer than average."
Two of these photos are ones I took as I tried to drive and catch the moon at the same time (I was running late or I would have pulled over). I gave up and resolved to take a photo once I got up to, where was it, Lincolnshire? But alas, as far as I can tell with the Crate and Barrels and clouds and such, the moon don't shine in the burbs. (Just as I suspected.)
I've included a nifty illustration from NASA instead. Sleep tight.

1 comment:

allison said...

Nice. I also tried to take a shot of the moon from a moving vehicle (posted here). I seem to have fared a bit better, but only by chance (also probably helped by being in the back seat, and away from the worst of the city lights). Regardless, you gotta love it when nature can still inspire the artistic/poetic impulse in us...