Watching the moon during a winter’s night

It rarely gets really dark in winter. The blanket of whiteness that covers the ground reflects every bit of light that comes from the sky. Even on a moonless, overcast night, enough starlight leaks through the clouds to help me find my way.

I enjoy walking around without artificial light at night. I can see great distances, especially in open areas and across the expanse of the lake. As soon as I turn on the flashlight, my view is limited to a small circle. The flash of artificial light turns the natural world to blackness. The horizon disappears. Better to use no light at all.

When the moon is new, we don’t see it at all. Only the stars light the night. Far from the city, the stars shine with brilliance enough to wander easily about in the night. Only when the cloud cover thickens does the walking get to be challenging.

Just a day or two after the new moon, a tiny sliver of moon lights the early evening sky. As the days progress, the crescent becomes thicker, and brighter, and higher in the sky for longer periods of time.

During the first quarter, fully half the moon will be lit, and it will stay high in the sky for hours after sunset. A week into the first quarter, the moon will be bright enough to ski under, if the clouds are not too thick.

The moon will brighten even more every night until it is full. By then, the moon will rise in the east as the sun sets in the west. For a few days, there won’t really be any darkness at all in the night, even if there is a thick layer of clouds. All night long the full moon will shine like a spotlight in the sky.

This is a great time to go skiing. Every night, between the first quarter and a few days after the full moon, we will be able to wander about freely and easily under the brilliant light of the mid-winter moon.

As the moon wanes it will still be large, but it won’t rise until an hour or so after sunset. The night will still be bright once the moon rises, you will just have to wait a bit for it to get high enough in the sky to light the landscape.

As the nights carry on through the month, the moon will rise later each night, and get smaller and smaller. As it dwindles, it straggles into the next day, clearly visible in the morning sky.

Even after the sun rises, the third quarter moon rides quietly across the sky, barely discernible in the pale blue background. Each morning it will seem a little smaller, until just a few days before the moon is new again, a tiny crescent will disappear in the east as the rising sun outshines it.

So the cycle begins again. Through it all, I continue to wander from the cabin to the sauna and back again. Sometimes I’ll just step out for a short walk to enjoy the beauty of the night. Then, if conditions are just right, I may even strap on the old skis and get out for an hour on the trails.

Viki Mather has been writing for Northern Life since the spring of 1984. During 2010, she takes us back to some of those older writings as she prepares to publish a book of ‘In the Bush.’ This article was originally written in late January 2001.