“Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a-Jupiter and Mars
In other words: hold my hand
In other words: baby, kiss me …
… In other words: please be true
In other words: I love you”
~ “Fly
Me to the Moon”
~ song written by Bart Howard & made
famous by the wonderful Frank Sinatra
~originally
titled “In Other Words,” the song was written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first
recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra’s 1964
version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Frank Sinatra sang “Fly Me to the
Moon,” but in the beautiful surreal of my imagination, those in this vehicle
can say, “drive me to the moon” as they come upon a full Snow Moon gently
dipping into the Little Lehigh Creek as a winter sunset looms in late February.
I created this image by blending my
painterly, HDR shot of a vehicle motoring along the road at Lehigh Parkway,
Allentown, Pennsylvania with my capture of the full Snow Moon over the West End
of Allentown on February 24, 2024.
February’s full moon was called
Snow Moon by many Native American cultures due to the typically heavy snowfall
that occurs during this time of year. According to the National Weather
Service, February is the United States’ snowiest month.
The Snow Moon was 2024’s only micro
full moon. Micro moons appear about 10 percent smaller than a normal full moon
and are about 14 percent smaller than the other extreme in appearance – a
supermoon. Micro full moons occur when the moon is at its farthest point away
from Earth in the orbit called apogee. Not only did the Snow Moon look smaller,
but the added distance reduces how much sunlight can reflect back to Earth.
This micro moon looked about 30 percent dimmer than normal.
This was the last full moon of the 2024
winter season.
