I had to make a quick trip to the Dollar General at dusk Tuesday night. The sun had set. The sky was pale blue, and there was only a faint rim of peach color left on the horizon. No stars had appeared yet. The only thing in the sky was a crescent moon, a "fingernail moon" hanging with the cusps at each end pointed up in the sky. Within minutes, full twilight had come, the peach rim had vanished, and the crescent moon shone as brightly as the sun.

It had a companion, a planet near the upper end of the right cusp shining so brightly it looked like a 100 caret diamond. I wish I knew what planet that was. Does anyone know?
An empty darkening blue sky, with only those two dazzling, incredible, wonderful objects to gaze at. I was starstruck. No wonder the Muslim/Turkish people use the crescent moon and star as their symbol.

When I got home I parked in the driveway and looked at the crescent moon and planet shining through the boughs of pine trees. It was very quiet, the sky had turned indigo, not a sound, no dogs barking, no cars on the road, just silence and those magnificent shining celestial objects in the night sky. I watched until I heard whip-poor-wills calling to each other from the hollows by the creek and the woods in back of the house. One of those memories to store up and remember till the end.

susil