Thursday, June 19, 2008

Luna Noctiluca

moonrise

The moon illusion doesn't work very well here.

We're in a valley, and Selene is already well on her journey before she rises over the mountain.

The clouds played hide-and-seek, and it was all quite lovely anyway.

The moment the first shiny diamond chip of a moon slipped over the top of the trees, it was as if a cue had been given, and coyotes began howling in the distance. Chillbumps and laughter!

I suspect the show continued all night, but we slept through it.

moonset

We woke just in time to see her making way for Eos and Helios, early this morning.

8 comments:

NCmountainwoman said...

Oh, it was a beautiful moon, wasn't it? Like you, we don't get the illusion either. By the time the moon clears the mountains so we can see it, the illusion is gone. Lovely pictures.

sugarcreekfarm said...

Okay, now you need to give a tutorial on how to get such nice moon pictures! Madeline wants to do a moon picture for her 4-H project this year, but her first attempts turned out poorly.

Anonymous said...

I got to glance briefly at the moon in the coulds on my way home from the airport this morning (picking up the wifey). This was at 2:30 this morning! I'm running on caffiene and adrenalin today.

Unknown said...

Beautiful pictures, lovely story. i like how you weaved the mythology in your narration, and the part of the coyotes gave me chills. Yours is one of the nicest blogs i was lucky to stumbe across:)

bobbie said...

Beautiful pictures. Just thinking of the howling gives me chills of excitement.

Anonymous said...

I second sugarcreekfarm - My moon pics are never as lovely...

We can see the "moon illusion" here; it is enchanting! On more than one evening we have just sat and watched it.

Rurality said...

Dani, thanks!

NCMW, Hubby said he did see the illusion when driving that morning.

SCF, my lens is one that corrects for hand-movements, at least to some degree. Otherwise you pretty much have to use a tripod. Also, it helps to spot-meter on the moon itself. (Most of my pics were blurry or overexposed.)

Pablo, that's much too early - or late - to be up!

Euth, thanks! I enjoy reading about mythology but can't seem to keep most of it in my head so I always have to look up the names.

Bobbie, thanks, it really was chilling!

Thimbelle, oh I wish we could see it from our house!

KFarmer said...

Dave got up early to go to work and when he got home he told me about the pretty yellow moon. I'm sorry I missed it :(