celestial events

This past week the August nights have offered a captivating celestial show with meteor showers, planetary alignments, and a full moon. The Perseids meteor shower, is a dazzling annual display and peaked around August 12-13. The six-planet alignment, with Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, has been visible using binoculars or a telescope in the early morning hours. I haven’t stepped outside to look but it’s cool knowing that they’re there. Additionally, the Sturgeon Moon, the eighth full moon of the year, illuminated the night sky on August 9.

Last Saturday, the last night of my class reunion, a friend and I were talking in the event space, standing by a wall of tall glass windows. It was dark outside and all at once we saw an orange arc rising above the tree line. The full moon was rising. We went outside to the patio and watched the big orange ball make its way into its full glory. What a sight! Karen talked about how she loved the sky - the sunrises and sunsets, clouds, stormy skies - and how her camera roll was filled with sky photographs. I told her that we are kindred spirits. My camera is filled with the same subjects, too, and then we laughed about the conversations our kids will have when they look at our camera rolls after we pass. “Mom took so many pictures of the sky! What are we going to do with them?” Maybe it will give them an understanding of something that brought us joy and they will look at the sky with wonder and awe.  

I tried to take a photo of the moon but an iPhone with the lights shining around the patio and grounds just couldn't handle it. I leave you with this one. Miss Liberty and the moon complement one another in a wow fashion.

(Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)