Sky Passions

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Yesterday, your Moonchasers returned to their business of capturing the biggest and best full moon risings. We were working with new cameras and had too little practice using them, so couldn’t capture accurately the whole show as we had planned.

Nonetheless, a show it was! This year’s rising Super Blue Moon made a beautiful appearance while rising above the dark horizon of Horse Ridge. We were parked out on the desert side, east of town, in near-darkness where we could see the lengthy dark Ridge, and practiced with our cameras while waiting for that special moon’s earliest glow.

It didn’t disappoint. Susie has great sky sense and was quickest to spot an emerging light. And we watched, awed, as the oversized globe rose and brightened a great darkness. Susie quickly spotted Saturn above the moon, dimly apparent to the naked eye. We took pictures and peered through binoculars. And then, we sat and watched the moon’s ascent while talking and catching up with each other.

We exchanged happenings in our little worlds and in the shared larger world. I began thinking of not having fully appreciated why the moon offers inspiration and reassurance. Its darkness-breaking appearances certainly touch our most inner-human selves, relating us to all humans since before time immemorial. We’re affected by a new light and a sense of renewed hope.

As we chatted, I dreamed more contemporarily about the moon’s impact on us humans. Maybe its power is because it has constant behaviors–routine and predictable. That’s completely the opposite of Earth’s current social, economic, and political turmoils.

The moon is a visual icon of genuine dependability, with a constancy that reassures a larger universe with genuine order. Despite today’s confusing world, we can become soothed by reminders that orderly behaviors and processes exist.

About today’s header photo, it’s a hint. I’ve not yet had time to download all our photos. More will come.

Dear Friends: September’s wonderful Harvest Moon will send us chasing. Diana