Mooned

I took this shot less than an hour after the full moon had occurred at 7:57 PM EST on the 15th. According to Space.com, this is the Beaver Moon (also called Frosty Moon) because it marks the setting of beaver traps before the swamps freeze. Another interpretation says that beavers are now active in their winter preparations.

By this time the moon had raced past Mars, leapfrogging the planet....

The clouds had parted in time for conjunction. My first shot gave me Mars but a blazing, featureless beacon of a Moon. The second gave more lunar detail but a barely-perceptible Mars that I thought I saw one moment and completely lost the next. Likely I'd been looking at a speck of dust on my computer screen.



The bottom view combines the top two, masking the beacon Moon with the more detailed one.

Text in the montage below is visible at full size (seen by clicking on the image):
Left: Nov. 14, 2005, 1:11 AM
Below, top: Nov. 15, 2005, 12:26 AM (conjunction)
Below, bottom: Nov. 15, 2005, 8:41 PM
(Eastern Standard Time)



These three shots show the Moon's movement as it approached, passed, and moved beyond Mars from our perspective.

I'd taken the last shot -- the Moon toddling off after having passed Mars -- on the evening of the 15th. Before then, Mary and I had been taking our "post office walk" when I spotted Mars rising above clouds lit by a setting sun.



I didn't have my tripod with me or I'd have a dot rather than a streak. I still thought this was pretty neat. The light on the clouds was gone minutes later and pretty soon they had swallowed up the planet.

This morning I was greeted by a canteloupe flower, courtesy of the "brain" seeds Mary had planted last month.

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