The BLUE Moon

After 3 days of rainy weather and cloudy skies, I finally got a partially clear sky today. I rushed to click the moon before it hid behind the few clouds floating around it! And what a beautiful moon it was. . . with shades of blue and spots of white. . . 

I also happened to find some interesting facts about what today's moon signifies (http://www.thegardenerscalendar.com/Moon_Planting.asp).
Something which majority of us are not aware of in today's times.

Apparently it is a good time to sow vegetables which produce internal seed bearing fruits, but not a good time to sow leafy plants!

The moon is in the sun sign Sagittarius, which means it is dry and barren, and its a good time to plant onions! 

Haha ;)

The Moon. . . on 2nd of Sept. 2011

. . . and the Moon once again. Thinking about documenting the complete Moon Cycle this time. Lets see how far I go with it.   
        

The Moon, once again...1st September 2011

    Santa called me and told me to shoot the moon . . . so I did :) and this is what it looked like today. . .

    Loving my new lens - 55-300 mm VR, as compared to my earlier one... the 70-300 mm non VR!
    Waiting to shoot many more Moon shots.

Eid Mubarak! 31st Aug. 2011

While driving back home this evening I saw the moon, and it looked beautiful against the darkening blue sky. I was praying there would be no traffic; I wanted to hurry home and get my camera out to capture it with that shade of 'blue'. Got a bit late for the blue but did manage to get the moon before it vanished.

This is a close up of the orange crescent moon with a star seen on the festival of Eid. The star is not too clear, but it is the little dot on the left!

The Crescent moon and star is a sacred symbol of Islam and dates back thousands of years. Where this symbol originates is difficult to explain, though in ancient times it was used in Central Asia and Siberia to worship the Sun, Moon and Sky Gods. Many years later, Istanbul and Constantinople took the symbol as their own, much before the birth of Christ. 

In today's times the festival  Eid ul - Fitr as it is called, is celebrated by visiting family, and exchanging gifts and greetings. People are dressed in their best clothes to visit the Mosque. Muslims sit for prayer. Once the prayer is over they wish each other 'Eid Mubarak' and hug. It is a way of maintaining love, togetherness and harmony. The festival also marks the end of Ramadan - end of the one month long fasting.
(Image: http://eidulfitrgifts.com/about/)

So this was a little about Eid. 
These are the two images I shot before the Moon disappeared. 

                                                                        
                                                                  EID MUBARAK!