Full Moon Madness…

“I’m telling ya… the sky map says the moon IS. RIGHT. THERE!!!”

More than once Tami and I have headed out to take pictures of the full moon and it usually does not go as planned. Just to be honest it isn’t just this plan, it’s most plans, can you say… “story of my life”!?!

The first time we headed out to take pictures of a full moon was during the Super Blood Moon Eclipse of 2015. Seriously, who decided to call it the super blood moon?!?! We were spooked before it even started getting dark! We ended up on a hill, eerily all alone, in the dark, in a very sketchy part of town.

We downloaded Google’s Sky Map to my phone and then we got to do Google’s version of the “hokey pokey”. To calibrate the app you tip your phone forward and then you tip your phone back and then you swing your phone to the left and then you swing your phone to the right. Forward, back, left, right. Forward, back, left, right. Repeat 896 times.

We then discovered that the sky map, like all maps, is IMPOSSIBLE to read 🤷‍♀️. Was the moon going to rise over there to the left? Or perhaps over there to the right? Are we even here on the right night? And then after all of that.

THIS! THIS was the sadness that I captured!

Very quickly it got cold. Who remembered a jacket? NOT me! The leaves were blowing in the wind making creepy noises and because eclipses are kind of spooky, we freaked out.

A year or so later we decided to try it again. This time we had a better plan and it really felt like a good plan. We decided to go to The Rocky Mountain Arsenal and use the old windmill as a prop.

Time to recalibrate Google’s Sky Map. Tip the phone forward, tip the phone back, swing to the left, swing to the right. Repeat 896,000 times and… I still can’t read a map! The moon was NO. WHERE. CLOSE to the windmill. It was in fact rising above what is probably a radioactive holding pond.

THIS! THIS sadness was what I got!

Then it got really, really dark and it was cold. Who remembered to bring a jacket? Once again, NOT me! When a pack of coyotes started yipping, certain we were going to end up as coyote food, we panicked and sorta walked (ran) back to the car.

Try number three involved an even better plan, a fool proof plan! We would go to Denver International Airport and use the “circus tents” as props. Lots of people (safety in numbers), fairly certain there are no coyotes, and the tents are HUGE (there is no way the moon won’t be near at least one of them!).

We got there way too early but managed to find some photogenic Christmas decorations with a seriously gorgeous Colorado sunset.

Colorado in the winter gets dark really fast so seconds after taking this picture we had to dash across the terminal to the east parking deck. Cameras ready, phone out doing the Google Sky Map “hokey pokey”, we waited, and we waited, and we waited.

NO MOON! Where is it? It is obvious I still can’t read a map! 🤦‍♀️ Good news though, I remembered a jacket.

We became just a couple of crazy ladies in a parking lot, waving a phone around, looking for the moon. We wandered toward the terminal and away from it. We wandered a little bit to the left and then a little bit to the right. We began to wander aimlessly and the entire time I’m waving my phone around no longer even looking at the map. Then there it was! Somehow we’d almost managed to miss it because we weren’t far enough north? Or maybe it was South?

This was what I managed to get.

By no means perfect but I’ll take it as a win.