Now for the rest of the story…

On my iPhone, I have a couple of neat Apps: 1) for viewing the sky, sun, moon, stars and even satellites – whether during the day or night. It’s called….. Night Sky, and 2) MoonPhase…. which provides information like rise and set times, a calendar showing the different phases, moon names, an ephemeris data file that calculates the position of the moon at regular intervals throughout the month and it will even howl on the day of the full moon. Basically, I’ve everything I need to be prepared for and be in position to paint the rising of the moon 🙂

I arrived a bit early and was able to lay the groundwork of the scene.  According to the Night Sky App, the moon would rise over the lower back ground trees between the dark foreground trees the where the far trees gained height.

Well, I waited and waited…. the moon should have already risen above the lower trees.  Were there really horizon clouds?  It sure looked like they had broken up to my eye.  Where was the moon? I decided to get out of my chair and take a look around.

There it is! Wait a minute… it’s over more to the left!  Ahhh!  I have to totally shift my angle of view and now there will be no reflection of the moon in the water 🙁    Oooooo, Jupiter is hanging with the moon tonight. Sweet!

I’m disappointed with with the Night Sky App.  It pulled a fooly on me.  All the times I’ve used it I don’t remember it being that far off on location of the moon.  Oh well, I was able to get two basic plein air sketches in my journal.  My over-the-neck nightlight had plenty of candlepower to paint by, but the cold damp air was making it difficult for my hands to work and even with the use of my little fan, the paper wasn’t drying fast enough.  I finished both sketches over the weekend.  All is well in my moon painting kingdom 🙂

The next big sketching day is just around the corner…. 12.12.12! The last of these special, same number day/month/year dates for this century.  What will you sketch to commemorate this day?