Full moonrise is such a common sight but one so often missed. The joy of seeing the sliver of a moon appear over the horizon starts a process. It starts with a sliver of light; it continues with the appearance of a fat moon, which is an optical illusion; it finishes with a bright disc that lightens the whole sky. On the other hand, it marks our earth’s surface rushing eastward. The motion is not perceptible except that we see it happening as the moon or stars rise in the East. Clouds make the moonrise fascinating as well causing interesting effects. Haze can cause a light halo of red a few degrees from the disc. The Lord meant these things to be seen and enjoyed. We are blessed with a large moon relative to the size of this created earth. Its rotation rate and orbital rate are the same, so we see only one side, but the light play on the side we see is truly interesting. It has a special place in God’s creation to mark the night with light — a lesser light than the sun, but still a light. And, he made the reflectivity of its surface perfect–low enough so we can still see the stars and observe the moon but not be nearly blinded. So here is a small oil painting on wood of one of those nights when I observed the moonrise. After you have taken a look, I invite you to another observation of a different object: a galaxy. The Sculptor Galaxy is a bright one and on of the closest. The link has the observation and a story: http://christworksministries.org/inspiration_sculptor_galaxy
