Can you see it? It’s there in the distance between the buildings. A faint white ball rising through a cloudy sky. It was taken last year, on the 14th of November.
All morning the radio was full of talk about it. The Supermoon. It was going to be the largest moon in almost 70 years to rise in the night sky. The closest the moon has been to earth since the first Polaroid camera was sold in Boston and the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The next time it will sail so near the earth will be in 2034.
It would be bigger and brighter they said. We would be able to see the difference with our naked eye.
I wanted to see it. I wanted to show it to my son. This was going to be one giant moon and I wasn’t going to miss it. I rang his father and told him dinner will be late that night. I bundled our boy into the car and headed for the Harbour Bridge. I thought we would be able to see the moon rising from there, unobstructed.
We arrived just after 7pm… and waited.
There were a few people there who had the same idea. From people like me with their phone cameras to serious photographers with huge camera lenses. All waiting for the sun to set and the full moon to rise.
“Mum, is it up yet?”
“Not yet. Let’s just wait and see.”
When the moon finally burst through the clouds, it was a tiny white ball in a sky still light from the setting sun.
Astronomers say that during a micro moon, the moon is 400,000km from the earth. This Supermoon was supposed to be 40,000km closer to us. It was to almost skim past the earth from 360,000km away. Fat lot of good that was. I could feel the sting of disappointment. Supermoon, you let us down.
“I thought it would be bigger…” I mutter.
“Me too mum. Let’s go home.”
“Sorry son. I wanted to show you something magical tonight.”
“That’s ok. At least we saw it together.”
via the Daily Prompt: Sting
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