Extremes

Friday night saw a clear sky and a "Wolf Moon." As I drove home Friday evening, headed east on I-95, I saw an enormous moon climbing above the horizon. It was larger than seemed possible, perceptibly larger than the usual "moon illusion" that we see at the horizon. Later that evening, with a still-large brilliant moon shining higher through the crystal-clear sky, we learned that the moon had come full at the exact closest moment in its wobbly orbit of earth, and that therefore our view of the moon really was measurably larger in the sky and (because closer) 30% brighter than usual. It was so bright that with the thin carpet of snow on the ground, it was very bright outside at 10:30 at night, and Amy asked whether we should go for a walk. But ....



It was also very, very cold out! The next morning our thermometer read 4 degrees F. Here was the view from Sarah's window:


When I was a child, my mother used to tell me, "Jack Frost painted your window last night!" I think this is something that doesn't occur in modern double-paned energy efficient sealed windows. In our 30-year-old windows with separate "storm windows," humidity from inside leaks through the main window into the area enclosed by the storm window, and then condenses and freezes as ice crystals against the very cold storm window. Jack Frost (originally Jakul Frosti in Scandanavia) is the mythical personnification of the creation of ice. Modern efficiency may be making his job a lot harder!