Lunar Reflection...

To continue my series of amazing yet seemingly insignificant discoveries made here by me here at my home in La Center, Washington I serve up a challenge.

Fog blanketed much of the rest of town near the Lewis River but failed to reach our property. As my Volvo ascended the driveway towards the ol' homestead I noticed an evening sky that was nearly clear (unusual for our winter months). A nearly full Moon grazed the sky and provided a soft luminance outside. Something caught my eye above my rear-view mirror: A blurry bit of reflected light. I didn't think much of it for a split second until I realized it to be coming from a left over Christmas bow made of shiny material. After a second I then discovered that it was light from the Moon itself that was bright enough to be the ultimate source of my momentary distraction.

Living here in the country, I've been prone to notice many precious and beautiful events. The Moon tends to be one of the more impressive. On a clear summer night, a full Moon can easily be bright enough to make out nearly all the details that a bright sun offers. Even shadows! Yet, aside from this, I'd never thought so subtle a light source could be reflected just as we often see sunlight reflected and bounced off different objects.

Another visible source of celestial light? Venus. I've read that in an extremely dark area on New Moon kinda' night, one may be fortunate enough to see their Venutian shadow. Hopefully sometime you'll read about it sometime—from me.

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