There's no curtains or blinds on the bedroom window at the mo.
I stand a large photo frame on its side which covers up two thirds of it but going to bed at midnight last night I found as I put my head on the pillow there was a super-bright searchlight of full moon shining straight in at my face, over the top of the frame. I waved hello, of course, but Oh No! Still, after a few minutes I went and found my little pair of binoculars and got back in bed. Lying with one side of my face on the pillow I could rest the binoculars right next to me and SEE THE MOON. Not shaky and not just for a minute till it got tiresome like stood getting cold in the garden, but for half an hour, in a cosy bed, and after a while with some music playing.
The vapour from the surface of my eyes steamed up the centre of the rear elements. So just using an edge of one lens I found it was possible to get a crisper view - and that by tilting the binoculars the moon would transpose INTO THE ROOM. I could pull the moon up near the ceiling or down onto the bed.
All those humans who in generations past had similarly intently studied and wondered about the moon were painfully limited by the resolving power of the human eye, but I was able to see subtle scarring and pitting and along the upper left shoulder the spark of light off a crater rim, clearly emerging above the arc of curvature, while lying in a warm bed.
All the fireworks that had blasted and cracked the same sky a few evenings ago meant nothing much at the time and I'd wondered a little at my numb response to them, but this was magnificent, intimate and astonishing.
I stand a large photo frame on its side which covers up two thirds of it but going to bed at midnight last night I found as I put my head on the pillow there was a super-bright searchlight of full moon shining straight in at my face, over the top of the frame. I waved hello, of course, but Oh No! Still, after a few minutes I went and found my little pair of binoculars and got back in bed. Lying with one side of my face on the pillow I could rest the binoculars right next to me and SEE THE MOON. Not shaky and not just for a minute till it got tiresome like stood getting cold in the garden, but for half an hour, in a cosy bed, and after a while with some music playing.
The vapour from the surface of my eyes steamed up the centre of the rear elements. So just using an edge of one lens I found it was possible to get a crisper view - and that by tilting the binoculars the moon would transpose INTO THE ROOM. I could pull the moon up near the ceiling or down onto the bed.
All those humans who in generations past had similarly intently studied and wondered about the moon were painfully limited by the resolving power of the human eye, but I was able to see subtle scarring and pitting and along the upper left shoulder the spark of light off a crater rim, clearly emerging above the arc of curvature, while lying in a warm bed.
All the fireworks that had blasted and cracked the same sky a few evenings ago meant nothing much at the time and I'd wondered a little at my numb response to them, but this was magnificent, intimate and astonishing.