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Last Night I was doing some reading with respect to the obliquity of the Earth’s and the Moon’s orbits in preparation for doing some outdoor tests on direction from the Moon’s Horns which I hope to look at over the next few weeks. 

Today was a great day for a walk, so we drove down the A46 and parked at a smashing café/ charity shop, Dove Cottage (52°53'02"N, 0°52'44"W), for coffee.  As usual, despite good intentions, we came out with more that we went in with (jigsaw puzzles and DVDs, not Covid (we hope)).  Then we walked 10,000 steps (4 miles) along the disused Grantham Canal and back toward our 1000miles in 2022 challenge.

Back to the celestial bit.  Driving home we’d just turned onto ‘Long Lane’ (52°53'07"N, 0°51'16"W) at 16.00 UTC when we noticed the Sun at about 2° above our horizon was shining directly into our rear window while the almost full Moon about 4° above our horizon was directly in the centre of our front windscreen.  Mrs P asked why the Moon was so bright and I was able to casually mention that the Moon was reflecting light from the Sun which had passed over the Earth because the orbital planes weren’t quite parallel. I considered going on to explain eclipses of the Moon but decided to quit while I was ahead.  If you're quick, Mid and Western US observers might just be able to catch this. I know it happens every month, but this was the first time I've had it strike me in the face. DaveP