As we left Colby, Kansas, just before dawn this morning, the bright full moon of July gleamed from the southwestern sky. Set amidst fiery, flat clouds, lit by the first rays of the sun, and shining high above the flat horizon of the vast High Plains, the moon's large, round shape was especially striking.
Accentuating its grandeur was the fact that this full moon is a Supermoon, occurring at a time when our natural satellite is closest to the Earth (the moon's orbit is not a perfect circle). Of additional interest, July's full moon is known as the Buck Moon since this is the month when the antlers of male deer are in their annual growth phase.
During a week when we received photos of some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe, some 14 billion years old and perhaps no longer in existence, the appearance of our own moon, taken for granted by most, may not seem terribly interesting. But I never tire of gazing at the full moon, super or not, especially when it adorns our majestic natural landscapes.
