Tonight the Moon is the closest to the Earth that it has been in eighteen years. People are calling it a Supermoon.  Although i’m really not into photography of celestial bodies (mostly because i just dont have the type of gear and telephoto lenses that would warrant that kind of work)  i couldn’t resist.  My dad was always big into astronomy and even though it’s past midnight i remembered about the Supermoon, looked lovingly at my Dad’s old lenses, and threw one on my camera, grabbed a tripod and ventured outside to get a quick shot.  I guess i just figured, if not now, when?  If he were around he would have for sure called me up and said “hey Lex.  you know there’s a Supermoon out tonight, you need to go take a look. right now.  go take a look.” and then he would have gone on and on about astronomy and i would have happily listened because that is one of my most fond memories of him-  talking about astronomy and black holes.  explaining them over and over to me… the difficult concept of black holes.

We once had a lawn party at my house for a meteor shower; we lived out in the country where the light pollution was minimal. I remember there being quite a few people on our lawn with their telescopes and cameras, but i cant for the life of me think of who they would have been?  how did my dad make all these quirky friends who were into astronomy or ham radio or medicine or kite flying?

Someday i’d like to have a meteor shower lawn party…

and until then, i think he’d probably think that this post was the best post i’ve ever made.

here’s to you dad, thanks for your lenses and your film camera… your inspiration and your knowledge.