A Full Moon Story - Moongazing With Mochi

Full moons facinate me

I love staring at them and I feel a bit sad whenever I know the full moon is not visible where I live. I have seen more full moons here in Spain compared the last year in Budapest as there the sight was always cluttered by lights pollution. So for that, I'm thankful. A few days ago, I read something about this upcoming full moon on December 8th being very special as there's a lunar occultation of Mars. Now don't get me wrong, I had no clue what this meant reading it but it sounded like I needed to see it.

Timezone

I started looking up when the full moon is actually visible for us here, it turned out to be somewhere very early, close to 5 AM. And with the knowledge that our sky here is filled with clouds or sand constantly, I wasn't sure if I'd want to get up for that to be honest. I sure didn't want to go out alone at that time, so what did I do? I asked my 6 year old (it's her last day holiday today) if she wanted to get up with me to check it. Although it was a YES, I knew I was fooling myself a bit knowing how well she gets up in the morning lately. But at least I could find some support from her if I wanted to.

Coughing nights

While we were already all a bit under the weather last week, it was not that bad until a few days ago, when our coughs started to get deeply annoying and painful. We barely sleep and it's not that great to know it's bedtime again knowing this will be another broken night. Thankfully, the kiddo seems to do ok with a leftover runny nose only so at least there's that. Last night, I went bananas and I really really really wanted to sleep but I woke up constantly thanks to the coughing. At 4.30 AM I started checking my phone for distracting and at some point I realized this was full moon day, so I might as well stay up a bit as I'm awake now anyway.

Full moon view from our window!

Oh man, I was so happy when I opened the window and instantly saw the full moon from there, it meant I didn't have to go outside and just keep an eye out from the livingroom instead. That's probably a good thing honestly, because where I was aiming to find the full moon and Mars occulation, I only managed to moongaze for minutes to then see the sky filled with clouds again. I did see an orange glow around the moon at some point, I will share those in another post.

Mochi was staring at the moon as much as I was

Probably excited that finally someone opened the window at night, so he could finally see something, lol. I had to be careful for him not to escape so I opened the right window and stood there so he couldn't pass and he was standing from the couch against the window on the left side where the window stayed closed. I took three images from the view and manipulated them into the first picture where Mochi is staring at the moon without the window in front of it.

Although a bit disappointed about not seeing Mars, it was fun staring at the moon for a bit. At least I could stay inside all the time, lol. Afterwards, I needed to sleep, or at least try because it was exhausting to be honest.

Did you capture the full moon and mars? Please do share if so! Would love to see the pictures!

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