Super Moon, Perfect Night for a Hike

Our lucky night! Not only did we have a full moon tonight, we had a full moon at the closest point to earth in its orbit, making it bigger and brighter than any moon we have had since 1993, the last time we had what astronomers call a "super perigee moon." We also had a clear cold night, perfect for viewing this super moon, and it just so happened to fall on a Saturday, the weekend day that Moreau Lake State Park had scheduled a full moon hike around the lake. Perfect!

I had volunteered to accompany the hikers tonight, bringing up the rear to make sure the group stayed intact. Since I, too, had to keep up with the hikers, I couldn't take time to make perfect photographs of this beautiful moon, just snapshots on the run. But some of those shots had some charm, despite their technical inadequacies. Here's the moon just clearing the mountains as we walked through the woods on the western shore of the lake.

I am nearly 69 year old. How many full-moon risings have I witnessed? Too many to count, and yet each time I witness that golden globe lifting itself as if by magic above the hills or the treetops I am stunned with amazement. Tonight the sight stopped me dead in my tracks, where I would have stayed for a much longer time if I had not had to catch up with the hurrying hikers.

Here's the view from the bridge at the far end of the lake, with the moon casting silver light on the frozen surface. (That misty ring around the moon is a camera effect. The real moon was sharply defined against a dark clear sky.)

Returning via the eastern shore of the lake, I was enchanted by the moon-washed landscape of snow-covered lake and dark mountains rising against the sky. When I first looked at my photograph of this scene, it was almost perfectly black. But by boosting the exposure I discovered this grainy image that I thought had a graphic beauty all its own.