Jupiter, Saturn, Mars. A first quarter moon on a string of stars and planets tonight. Even just past dusk, there was enough moonlight to cast shadow.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to have two moons? Not just for the dance of their positions in the sky, close and apart, but the combinations of phases. Crescent and gibbous and full. We’d probably have a treasury of mythology based on the sequence of their shapes and distance from each other. And then there would be the interaction of their light: reflection from the sun, the earth, each other.

A true dark night would be much more of a rarity--two new moons at once. Cause for celebration of shadow.

Two moons to mirror sunlight. A reflector telescope has two mirrors, one to gather light, one to focus that light. It takes both mirrors to see clearly, to see light beyond the sun, beyond the solar system.