Heading out to see the Wolf Moon rise… and failing enjoyably. Spotting the new moon at Chinese New Year. A month later, during a failing attempt to do a night time challenge, we finally find the full moon. Then, in March, we raise our game and try and spot the partial lunar eclipse…
353 – Attempting to watch the Wolf Moon rise
Monday 13 January. Some cloud. 7°C
It is a wolf moon tonight – that is the first full moon of the new year. The internet suggests it will rise at 3.35pm in the North East so B and I plan to go down straight after school and see if we can see it from the Cardiff Bay Barrage. About an hour before, I realise that it is rather cloudy in that direction. I hope it will clear. It doesn’t. We get there, hang around for about half an hour, walking round that corner of the bay and playing hide and seek and ‘spot the grebe’. B is philosophical.
B: That’s the thing with nature. It doesn’t always do what you expect it too.
Very true. Weirdly, even though it’s cold and we don’t see the moon we have a really good time. We park a bit away so we have to walk round to the barrage and we enjoy finding our way and exploring the area a bit. It strikes me that if I’d told B we were going for a walk and would do that, I wouldn’t have got her out of the house with a bargepole, but she loved it. Will ponder this! In the meantime we plan to keep an eye out at home for the moon to finally show itself but we forget. I notice it shining beautifully long after B is asleep. Making a mental note to try again next month!
Spotting the baby moon
Almost two weeks later, on the 31 January, we are driving at night and B sees the teeny tiny curve of a baby crescent moon. We’re both excited. B’s been doing lots about Chinese New Year celebrations at school and at brownies and we realise it’s the same moon they’re celebrating in the East. Over the next few days we watch as it grows.
323 – Listening to night noises and finally seeing the full moon
Wednesday 12 February. Cloudy. 5°C
It’s mid week and we’re failing to find a challenge. B is tired and I’ve got a cold and we’re low energy and a bit miserable. It’s brownies night so I put it off till later.
Me: “Let’s find something on the way to brownies. We could go a bit early.”
It’s almost twilight at 6pm now rather than completely dark and it’s very still. It could be lovely.
B: “No. I want to do it after brownies.”
I have a bad feeling that we’re going to both be even more tired by then but roll with it, hoping B’s energy levels will see me through.
Sadly this doesn’t happen but I’ve managed to come up with an idea. We’ll go to the park and sit in a tree and listen to the dark. I’ve realised we haven’t really done any challenges based around listening. I have visions of us back in the lovely big trees in the square.
It’s not to be. We end up walking the other way and find ourselves at the edge of the playing field which is a bit more intimidating at night and, apart from grass, not overly natural. I get her to listen anyway. The bells in the church on the hill are rung on Wednesdays which is lovely and we can hear cars from the neighbouring streets too. B moves the gate to the park and it makes an enormous creaking noise.
B is less than happy now. “I don’t want to listen, I want to go home.”
I do see why. I’m rapidly concluding it’s one for when we have more energy and a more interesting noise environment to do it in. B chalks a 323 on the ground and is prepared to call it a night.
B: “We should have looked at the moon instead”.
Me: “Well, let’s find it on the way home”.
We turn to walk back home and there it is. A full moon. I’d forgotten we were meant to be looking out for it after missing the January one so completely. It’s a cloudy night and it is disappearing into them as we spot it. I kick myself for missing it and then, as we’re almost home, it comes out again.
We stand and watch it on the corner of the street for ages. The clouds are passing over it and making it look like it’s moving. We find out later that the February moon is called a snow moon. We both like that.
322 – The return of the stick >
< 324 – Turning last years Christmas tree into a den
293 – Spotting (and then loosing) the partial lunar eclipse
Friday 14 March. Partially cloudy. 3°C
We’re going all out for an early morning challenge. It’s the March full moon and there’s a partial lunar eclipse due at moonset at 6.25am. I suspect B is more enthusiastic about this than me. She’s an early riser. I’m worrying over the logistics. We won’t see the westerly horizon from our house so I’m wondering where we can go to see it properly. There’s a field up on a hill above the town and I reckon that’s worth a shot. We make our plans carefully. I set the alarm for 5.50am. We reckon we can hop in the car in our dressing gowns and be back for an early breakfast.
The cat, helpfully, makes a contribution and wakes us up at 5.35am. We look out the window and can see the moon in the sky (it’s not gone below the houses opposite yet). There’s a big chunk out of the side of it and we’re both excited. It’s meant to get more pronounced as it sets so we rush out into the car and up the hill.
…and meet complete disappointment. In the five minutes from leaving the house the cloud has arrived and completely covered the moon. There’s sort of a glowy area where it probably is but the cloud is dense and full and clearly isn’t going to shift. B is quicker than I am to give up the chase (“I’m cold and hungry!”). Turning 180° there’s a beautiful red streak on the horizon so I get us back in the car (with some probably justifiable moaning) and drive to where we get a good view east. It’s still cloudy but the birds are going crazy and the red cloudy strip is pretty. Then we give up and go home having experienced a gentle disappointment I suspect is common in these sort of endeavours.
