Blue moons are more common than you would expect.
That, however,depends on how you define them. Historically, it is the third full moon in a season that has four of them. If you want to know more about that, “Google is your friend”. More recently, it has come to be used as the occurrence of a second full moon in a calendar month. There has been a lot of chat about the one on 31st of August. Did you know that in our hemisphere, by the time the full moon occurred, it was 1:58am on Saturday 1st September and therefore not a blue moon? So in our side of the world we shall have a (modern) blue moon at 4:18pm on September 30. Just thought you’d like to know. However, the moon rising yesterday evening was visibly indistinguishable from full, and it was a wonderful red/gold colour.
This handheld shot was taken as soon as I saw it, in the knowledge that by the time I got my tripod and remote trigger mounted, the gap to the horizon would destroy the effect.
Earlier in the day, I wandered around the Eastern side of the valley, pausing first in the area where Hutt Park Raceway once was, and which has now been developed to accommodate a bunch of indoor sports facilities as well as a bar and café. Standing beside the Waiwhetu Stream, I saw another of those intriguing patterns of corrugations reflected on water.
From there, I went near the much diminished but still struggling-on railway workshops. With just a little touch of nostalgia, I noted a rake of the old English Electric “units” which served Wellington for over half a century. I assume they are awaiting their turn to be scrapped. I am not sure why there is one of the relatively modern (1980-ish) Ganz-Mavag units in the queue though it looks as old and tired as the English Electrics at the rear. I assume the wire is to stop them attempting to escape.
See you tomorrow, maybe.