A mind boggling moon

GSTahoe@aol.com
Thu, 23 Dec 1999 02:43:45 EST


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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This may not be totally about sailing, but that would be really cool if it
where!

Whoever said that tonight's full moon was a hoax blew it. It is absolutely
spectacular. I was ready for bed at 10:30 PM and then on a whim decided to
take a hike. I drove to the top of an area people around here refer to a
Sheep's Flats. Sheep's Flats is about the highest point easily accessible
around Lake Tahoe. It is at about 8500 feet. There the snow during the
winter is usually 20 to 40 feet deep. This year it's sparse, probably just a
foot or two. Usually during the winter it is blowing and close to, or below,
zero. Tonight it was warm. Around 30 degrees. I was able to walk about a
half mile from the road across a wide meadow. You could see for miles in the
moonlight. The moonshadows where eerie. I took binoculars and a camera.
The moon was so bright that it was difficult to look at through the
binoculars. As a point of reference, I am typing this on a notebook computer
with an active matrix screen. The whites on the screen are about the same as
the brilliance of the snow tonight. If you look at the moon, it takes
several moments for your eyes to readjust to the night after looking away.

While driving back to Incline Village I stopped at a "scenic turnout" that
overlooks Lake Tahoe. I could easily see peaks that are more than a hundred
miles away. What a night it would be to be out on the lake.

I hope I'm not the only one on this list who was able to experience this
once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. I wouldn't have known about it unless someone
here had written about it. Whoever it was, I thank you.

Geoff

P-15 Lollipop
N. Lake Tahoe, NV and
Monterey, CA