Since I was a child I always been fascinated by the Moon. As far as I can remember I wanted to become an astronaut. When I realized it was not possible I wanted to study astronomy until I found out that at University you spend most of your time studying maths and physics rather than in front of a telescope. And that was not for me.
Still the Moon remains my passion and my object of interest. A couple of days/nights ago a beautiful phenomenon occurred involving the Moon and planet Venus: a conjunction. A conjunction is the name given to occasions when two or more celestial bodies come close to one-another in the sky. They are never physically close, of course - conjunctions are simply a "line-of-sight" effect when objects just happen to be in the same area of sky as seen from Earth
My friend Roberto was so clever to be able to capture it over my hometown sky in Italy. See his pictures above and below.
And more or less at the same time the lovely Juliet of Crafty Green Poet posted this beautiful poem about the Moon, my dear Moon.
marzipan moon rises slowly
through rusting clouds
shrinking herself paler
until she sits white
high in the sky
the lights of a plane
flash on and off
below her.
Thanks Roberto and thanks Juliet. These are what I call the small joys of life...
