Flashback to December 29, 1968. In this photo, Earth is about five degrees above the horizon…of the moon. No, we didn’t take it. We were eight, and probably busy doing something else. Plus, our little point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix could never have handled it, even if it had been invented. Credit goes to the Apollo 8 crew.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, we grew up and became kayakers. And on the balmy summer night of August 9, 2014, we joined dozens of others for a super romantic, Super Moon-lit paddle on Lake Sebago at ACA camp.

August’s Super Moon was the closest and brightest full moon of 2014. (Unfortunately, our poor little Nikon renders it indistinguishable from Alex’s headlamp…maybe there’s a fancier camera on our horizon?)
Because the moon is closest to us at its orbital perigee, you could also call this the Perigee Moon. Which treats us to perigean tides—the super low, super high tides that result when you get your sun/Earth/perigean-moon ducks in a row.

Super duper low tide at Horseshoe Harbor “Yacht” Club on Monday 8/12

We actually launch from this work dock sometimes! Not today.

What Alex looks like dry.

So that’s about it for today’s moon facts. Wait—one more (Jean loves pondering this while watching the gorgeous NASA video at end of this post):

Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, a Geological Surveyor, who educated the Apollo mission astronauts about craters, never made it into space himself, but it had always been one of his dreams. He was rejected as an astronaut because of medical problems. After he died, his ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft on January 6, 1999, which was crashed into a crater on the moon on July 31, 1999. The mission was to discover if there was water on the moon at the time, but it also served to fulfill Dr. Shoemaker’s last wish.

So enjoy this amazing moon footage, courtesy of the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA); the music too. (Click to start.) And be sure to wave to Dr. Shoemaker—the real man in the moon.

Thanks, Ailsa, for this week’s Travel Theme: Horizons. Did you see the Super Moon on your horizon? Please share! 🙂