I normally get up between 4 and 5 AM. Fifty years ago it would have been to get some work done before I went to work. When I retired 10+ years ago, the early rising did not stop. What I would do did. I generally messed around creating web pages like this one.

When Edith and I relocated to Howick two and a half years ago, it afforded me the opportunity to watch and photograph the sun rising. I have seen, enjoyed and photographed some spectacular sunrises. Occasionally there is an interesting moon rise and the one I watched today was extraordinary.

As I watched I saw what seemed to be a star/planet resting in the moon's crescent. It never occurred to me that it could not possibly be a star/planet. I immediately rushed to my desk to collect my camera. The star/planet had moved. Photographing the moon with the camera zoomed to 30x is not easy. I did however manage to get a few reasonable shots that you will find below this text. Click on an image to see an enlargement. Also best viewed on a big (PC/Computer) screen

The first image is interesting as the object (no longer a planet/star) seems to be casting a shadow on the moon's surface. I have to say that it took a while for me to get my head around what I saw. I pulled out my phone to run my Sky Map app to try and identify the star/planet that I had seen cross the moon's surface. What it showed was four stars I am not familiar with in the proximity of the moon. That sort of implied that they would not be at all prominent, and certainly not as prominent as the object I saw crossing the face of the moon.

... and yes, my glasses were clean.