Monday, August 07, 2006

Shine on August Moon

I am still newbie enough at this techno thing that I can be found wandering around my front yard on a balmy summer night trying to pick up the wireless signal from the coffee shop behind my house. Tonight as I ventured out half pj clad, I felt like someone was watching. The big old glowing face of the man in the moon is making a spectacle of himself in the night sky.

There was a time known as BC (before children) when I would spend hours on my front porch. In those days a moon like this would have never caught me unawares. I would have seen this guy coming a week away. But these days I only come out on my way somewhere else. I'm lucky to have caught this one at all. Two points for techno-aversion.

Looks like some thin cloudcover is moving in. Just now Mr. Moon was leaning back in a hammock of cirrus. Or stratocumulus. Or something. For once, I'll skip the Google on cloud terms, swat the mosquitoids, and enjoy the show. You might want to venture out this week. I hear Mars is supposed to make an appearance, too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Every,

That big old moon will be full on Wednesday, and is also called the Green Corn moon.

The Mars part is an internet hoax. Mars was very close three years ago (August of 2003), but it will be nowhere to be seen on the evenings this month. More on this urban legend here:

www(dot)snopes(dot)com(slash)
science(slash)mars(dot)asp

However, you might want to check out Jupiter, which will be the brightest star to the south just after the sun sets. There will also be a meteor shower the night of the 11-12 of August. The moon's glare will interfere, but you are likely to see more shooting stars than usual if you watch for a few minutes.

Clear skies!