A Night Like This

"Forty-five years after astronauts landed on the moon, scientists say they have finally discovered its true shape: slightly flattened, with a bulge on one side.

"'Like a lemon with an equatorial bulge,' said Ian Garrick-Bethell, a planetary scientist at University of California, Santa Cruz, and an author of the study being published in the journal Nature. 'If you can imagine a water balloon flattening out as you spin it.'" (Douglas Quenqua, "The Moon Is (Slightly) Flat, Scientists Say", The New York Times, July 30, 2014)

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Waxing gibbous on the eve of the summer supermoon.

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Silvered natural satellite, a platter held in night's hand.

May I serve you?

Yes, please, and thank you.

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Even bigger, even brighter tomorrow.

"Closer to the earth than it has been in over twenty years, stargazers will see a moon 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than usual." ("Supermoon 2014: All You Need to Know about This Sunday's Supermoon," The Independent, 10 August 2014).

That's the promise.

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But for now, tonight is more than enough.