This evening, I had a very weird experience. I was filling my gas tank up at my local Shell station when I noticed the moon off in the distance. I was looking South and I saw the most stunning “bowl” of light in the middle of the sky. Instantly, I knew it was the moon!
In hindsight, I wish I would have just observed it for some time, but instead, I was compelled to text my family that it was so beautiful.
When I got back in my car, I fully expected to see the moon just looming where it was 5 minutes earlier, when I looked through my windshield. But it was nowhere in sight! I even got back out of my car and walked into the middle of the parking lot, looked up at the sky and visually confirmed that the sky was clear enough for me to see some stars. Of course, where the moon had been seemed like it was covered in clouds. There are so many lights in Richmond, that it’s hard enough to see the night sky without there being cloud-cover.
I started to think I had just gone plumb crazy, because all my family responded back that they couldn’t see it. At last, I just had to do scour the internet for some kind of visual confirmation of how the moon looked tonight. I found this photo and I feel much better.
Based on the tags, this photo appears to have been taken in Texas. I bet the distance Richmond, VA and TX would account for the slightly different orientation that I saw the moon in.
Either way, I feel a LOT better having gotten visual confirmation that I wasn’t just seeing things.