Full moon

I wanted to post a quick note about the moon since it was out in such dramatic form tonight, and I was feeling really grateful for all the cold weather that seems to have helped cleared the air, and made everything feel a little more alive in a weird way.

I know the full moon was Saturday night, but it definitely seemed fuller tonight. I had the great fortune of driving due west from about 6pm - 7pm on my way back from Troy and got to watch the moon rise up over the southern part of the lake. In that hour the moon shifted from the deep yellow of a wolf's eye to a striking - almost blinding - white, much like the morning reds, pinks, and oranges giving way to a clear, light blue in the middle of the day (boring explanation: the color shift has to do with the amount of atmosphere between the viewer and the moon - blue gets absorbed first, but giving enough atmosphere longer wavelengths, like red, get absorbed and we are able to see them since they overshadow the blues).  

You can notice the slightest wavy part of the top of the moon, which is actually a shadow, revealing the ever-so-slightest crescent carved out of the moon. The chunk was on the trailing end of the moon's path in the sky, indicating that the moon is waning. And, the photo below is a weird phenomenon -that offset green mirage of the moon - I've noticed a couple of times while photographing full moons.