Moon Over Paradox

I’ve been notified several times this week about a rare heavenly phenomenon soon to take place over the Valley of Mexico. On Nov. 14, the rising moon will be at once full and at its closest proximity to the earth. That means it will look larger than usual. 

The news has been coming via the usual social media sources, with breathless excitement. This supermoon, we’re told, hasn’t been seen in 68 years. It won’t be witnessed “by humankind” again until 2034. It is not to be missed.

The tone might have been even more urgent, given how lovely the full moon looked from my neighborhood just a week ago as it rose over the hills beyond the Torres de Satélite. I’m pretty sure that two full moons in 11 days is more than a once-in-68-years anomaly. The Astronomical Society of Mexico offered no help; in fact its page is down. Neil deGrasse Tyson had no light to shed. Guess you can say anything you want on the internet. 

But . . . what have we here? La Jornada, Friday, Nov. 10, 2017 edition, page 31, a column by José Cueli running under the title “What Will Happen on Tuesday, the 14th?” He’s talking about the supermoon. In print, mind you. 

Like many Jornada columnists, Cueli is more academic than journalist, and usually takes extra care to keep his texts as impenetrable as possible. But today he seems genuinely touched by last week’s moonrise, which he describes as “the color of juicy grapefruit dappled with quetzal feathers which leave the earthquakes behind in space and foreshadow a new conception of time and space that will be reaffirmed on Tuesday the 14th.”

I don’t know if “a new conception of time and space” refers to the premature second full moon. Nor am I sure how you can “reaffirm” a future new conception

But unless he’s totally putting us on (out of character) I think Cueli expects something to happen on Tuesday. He concludes: “How will the moon enlighten us next Tuesday, the 14th? What surprises will appear with its brilliance?”

You can wait four days to find out, or you can go back a year to Nov. 14, 2016 (a Monday, not a Tuesday) when a supermoon, not seen for 68 years, not to return until 2034, glowed over Mexico City. 

  That ruins the surprise, granted, but it saves who knows how many from staying up until 3:26 a.m. (Tuesday’s scheduled moonrise) to search for a waning crescent moon, normal-sized, and not especially bright.