Supermoon

On Super-Moon, Heavenly Bodies & Getting Old

In Nature, there is no such thing as a perfect circle. 

Therefore the orbits of the planets and their moons are elliptical rather than round. That means that our Moon is sometimes closer, sometimes further away from the Earth. When the moon is at its closest distance to the Earth and it is full at the same time it seems much larger and brighter than at other times. It becomes a super-moon.

It was May the 5th when my friend Nel called me on the phone:

"Watch the moon tonight - it is going to be really big 'cause it's the closest to the Earth it can get! Lets hope that it does not rain because our next chance to experience something like this will be in 2029."

Hm, I would be 80 years old then, and who knows, the skies might be cloudy that night, so I decided that it was the best to prepare my gear and photograph it NOW, in 2012.

The moon in this West Kootenay valley was supposed to rise at about 11 p.m. 

I was out and ready at eight! Waiting, praying for a cloudless night, trying to imagine what it must be like in the Prairies. Huge Prairie Moon rising above the unobstructed horizon, its super-size multiplied by the atmosphere, looking so huge as if  wanting to swallow the Earth. 

Here I was instead, at the bottom of a deep V-shaped valley on the shores of Kootenay River with tall mountain ridges reaching high for the darkening sky. The moon would be half way up before I could see any of it. It did not matter to the kid inside me, wanting to check out the 400 mm lens on the heavenly super-body.

Just no clouds, please, no clouds – okay?

There are times when wishes come true. There was not a cloud in the sky, not at eight, not at nine, not at thirty past ten! At ten forty a small portion of the Eastern sky lit up! Slowly at first but then the moon popped up, and with increasing impatience (so it seemed ), rapidly rose above the ridge. The fields and forests, the river and everything around just lit up gaining a different dimension.

The fairy tale night  began!

   SuperMoon

Several decades ago, on July 20, 1969 my brother Stan and I lazed around a small fire on a lonely beach somewhere in Italy watching a bright full moon. The news of that day was huge: “Apollo landed on the Moon! ” The world was celebrating, radio and TV stations endlessly discussing the achievements and future possibilities of the space programs. Man conquered the Moon!

Somehow I did not share that excitement; I felt a wave of sadness as if something sacred had been taken away from me. It felt as if someone walked across a field covered by freshly fallen snow.

“ No longer a virgin”, I remember saying. Stan only nodded his head.

…..

All the memories, 43 years old, came back while I was taking dozens of pictures of the rising moon. Click-click-click …. boy, was it ever rising fast!

No, no, no no no! – (that was my brain) – it is not the moon, it is the Earth and you – spinning in the opposite direction, silly!

What would happen if Earth suddenly stopped spinning – would I land on the moon?

Ah, full moon is known to do strange things to human brain. And this was Super-Moon.

     Star Trails and Polaris

Satellites above my head kept crisscrossing the skies; there was one, there – another one! No big deal, simply more of the space pollution, I thought.

Not so some fifty years ago when Stan, ever the scientist, came running into our parents’ house, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out into the darkness of the night.

“Hurry, hurry! There is a satellite in the sky! lets see ….” It was only an optical illusion but we both pretended that we REALLY, REALLY saw one.

Half a century later a brand new “star” lights our night every now and then. Only a few people ever bother to lift their heads to have a look. 

"Ah, …  yes, the Space Station. of course. I wonder what’ they are having for dinner up there tonight."

     Space Station

So much has changed in such a short time. Sometimes I wonder: how can one begin to tell a modern Fairy Tale? Perhaps it could go like this:

Once upon a time, fifty, sixty long years ago there reigned Chaos. No man-made objects orbited the Earth. There were no human tracks on the Moon, no satellites, no lasers, no cell phones, no Internet …”

A seven year old would cringe in horror: 

“What?  How about people? How were they able to survive? What was it like for them? “

To tell the truth, I am not sure if I could explain to a seven year old that it was beautiful.

Oh that super-moon!