The Moon on its Way to the Eclipse

This is a scene for the night between August 12 and 13 (Saturday and Sunday).

The Moon has eight and a half days to go till its New moment – the moment, this time, when it will stamp on the Sun.

Each morning from now on, you could see it take one stride (of a bit less than an outstretched handspan) nearer to the Sun.  So you could each morning be up one hour later to see its dwindling crescent.

This morning the Perseid meteors may still be streaking, 10 hours (at the time and place of our picture) after their presumed peak.

The later strides of the Moon toward its appointment with the Sun are shown in this detail from the sky-scene illustration in The Under-Standing of Eclipses.

 

3 thoughts on “The Moon on its Way to the Eclipse”

  1. For the past two weeks the nighttime sky here in San Francisco has been completely obscured by clouds and fog. I hadn’t even seen the Moon during this time, and the afternoon Sun has been an inconstant visitor. Last night there were a few breaks in the clouds. I could see Jupiter briefly in the dusk, plus Arcturus, the handle of the Dipper, and the Summer Triangle. When I woke up about 03:30 PDT and peeked out the window, Capella was peeking back at me through a tiny porthole in the clouds. I got dressed and went outside, and there was the gibbous Moon, high in the South, shining through the passing clouds. It was immensely reassuring to know where the Moon was in the sky, not from charts and ephemeris, but by direct observation. I went back to bed and slept soundly until sunrise, and had very interesting dreams.

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