Much of Any Moon

Lunar New Year, the moon must be full when Lunar New Year falls, correct?  You’d think after all these years, I’d have figured this out.  If you’d asked me around 6:00AM this morning or just about any time beforehand I think I would have replied, “yeah, sure.”  I probably would have harkened back to nights with relatives in Shandong, likely and importantly, notably inebriated nights, considering the plump, round moon.  And Lunar New Year will fall about fifteen days from today this year, on February 5^th. 

Riding out this morning at 6:05 AM I noticed immediately that it was a clear sky.  Biking in a southeasterly direction there are two prominent stars right on top of one another.  Some days they aren’t there but today they were bright.  Considering my Stargazer app just now, I’ve discerned that it may have been Jupiter and Venus who are aligned up there in the southeast sky over Beijing just now.  Tomorrow morning I’ll try to confirm. 

Out the gate, I begin my ride in the opposite direction to the northwest, and off in the southwestern sky the moon was majestically full, there above the trees.  I pulled over my bike, took off my gloves and fuddled for my camera app on my phone.  Whatever it is has to be pretty remarkable to make me consider ceasing to pedal and bothering to photograph in this cold . . . and it was.  Far in the distance a car was approaching and its headlights bled my picture compromising whatever moonshot might have been possible.  I biked on and whenever there was a clearing stopped, I’d pedal beyond the all night shop lights and wait for there to be no cars and try to capture the moon’s beauty.  I don’t think my old iPhone 6 did justice, to this moon where you could almost imagine you might see life itself within the surface contours. 

Somewhere along the trip, I recalled that Lunar New Year will be February 5^th this year.  The moon will obviously not be full on the holiday.  It will be the beginning of new moon, which makes sense, when you think about it, but hadn’t been my default understanding.   There can’t be much of any moon to see, on the first day of Lunar New Year.  Chu-san, when you send the ancestors home, scaring off the ghosts with fireworks, it’s always, therefore a pitch-black night.   I’m thankful that our Beijing sky is clear enough this winter to have all these observations.  Inshalla, we’ll have another such night, fifteen days from now so I can confirm. 

Monday, 01/21/19