On March 14, 2021, I published our leading Moon-themed article, The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei. That article covers English-language sources on the apocryphal story that the great Japanese author, Natsume Soseki, recommended translating I love you from English to Japanese as tsuki ga kirei desune (“the Moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”). I illustrated my research article with my February 2021 daytime photograph of the Moon. Long-time New Leaf Journal readers will know that my tsuki ga kirei article holds a special place in the history of our humble website. It is, as of its fourth anniversary, the second-most visited New Leaf Journal article of all time. What better way to celebrate its fourth birthday than with my new Moon photograph?
I took the above photo on the evening of March 12, 2025, while standing at the intersection of Joralemon Street and Boerum Place in Downtown Brooklyn (just behind Brooklyn Borough Hall), looking down Fulton Mall. I was waiting for the light to change when I noticed how full and bright the Moon was in the night sky. But the Moon itself would not have prompted me to ready my phone camera (I used a the default camera app on a GrapheneOS-powered Google Pixel 6a), especially since I have usually found that I do not get good photos of the Moon with my phone camera. But as I approached the intersection, I saw what appeared to be the reflection of the Moon on the side of a tall building on Willoughby Street, slightly off-center left (note Willoughby is the left street, Fulton Mall the right). Facing a long traffic light, I figured that it was worth a photo shot (it is not as if space on my phone is at a premium, after all). I opened the camera app, managed to get my phone square and level, and took one photo just before the light changed.
All things considered, I dare say that the photo came out fairly well given the amount of lights in the area (a New York City problem), the limitations of my phone camera, and my limitations as a night-time photographer.
The next day (March 13, 2025), I became aware that we were having a lunar eclipse in the late night early morning hours of March 14, 2025. I unfortunately missed this eclipse (unlike a 2024 eclipse) because it occured at a strange hour and I had work to do (including publishing this article). I read that because of a confluence of circumstances the Moon would appear red. But fear not, shortly after I took my March 12 Moon photo, I encountered and photographed the Brooklyn Tabernacle, which happened to be clad in red light.
Little did I know that my Brooklyn Tabernacle photo would also have some (symbolic) March 2025 Moon significance.
