One evening a thief visited Ryōkan’s hut at the base of the mountain only to discover there was nothing to steal. Ryōkan returned and caught him. “You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.” The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. Ryōkan sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”
This story may be an interpretation of an account mentioned by Ryōkan in a haiku:
盗人に取り残されし窓の月
ぬすっとに とりのこされし まどのつき
nusutto ni / torinokosareshi / mado no tsuki
Too bad; it was a completely clear, frosty night last night in Hamburg. You could see the detail quite clearly, including the rays of ejecta from the main craters. (I was using binoculars and couldn’t take a picture).
My tripod’s broken… I really wanted to take a crack at an HDR shot. HDR shots work much, much better with tripods. So I braced the lens on the car with the lens set on a towel. Not ideal for an HDR shot but this one worked. The other dozen+ were crap where some vibration/sliding ruined it so I’m glad I got one.
Child: "But papa, that planet is barren and gray: there are no blue seas, no green plants, no atmosphere! You said our planet used to be a paradise…" Father: “It was, many many many eons ago, before the United States of America choose Trump to be its Emperor.”