On Fairway Drive:
Mary and I left the somewhat secure confines of our home to follow our street around the bend in the road to the left to where the sky is visible. Tonight the moon was full and magnificent (a few years ago I might have said the sky was truly awesome, but our culture has rendered that word useless except as a fairly meaningless expression of approval). The moon was not only magnificent but Jupiter was exactly to the left of the moon making a stunning pairing in the night sky. We watched them rise over the houses in the subdivision and over the golf course behind them. The moon appeared to have a golden sheen, as in the image I found, and was stunning!
On the other side of the sky in the distant WSW Venus was still visible in what was left of the setting sun's glow. Mars is with Venus, a little higher and toward the south. I could glimpse Mars from time to time, but primarily it was dim, and then it washed out. There are, however, spectacular stellar events coming this month as Venus catches up with Mars and then passes the planet, around the end of the month. On February 20, for example, Mars, Venus, and a sliver of the moon will all be clustered together in the western sky about an hour after sunset.
As I was standing on the road watching the moon and Jupiter, I was talking to Mary about Orion and Sirius which were very faint, thanks to the brilliant moon. When she didn't say anything for a bit, I turned around to see if everything was all right and discovered that I had been talking to Mrs. Henderson's mailbox. Mary was one lot down at the end of the cul-de-sac, far enough that she had not heard me holding forth. I decided that if Mrs. Henderson's mailbox was going to maintain its lonely, Stoic silence, I should too. And so I will now and take myself to bed.
Oh, sadly, we had to leave Simon, Schuster, Frollie and Dexter home, as there is no real standing quietly and looking up while we are holding on to the guys in the middle of the night in the middle of the road. We've tried. Needless to say, they were quite disappointed, but we explained that if the weather cooperated, they would get their walk tomorrow/today.