Waking up at 6.25am this morning, I suddenly realised that I had slept through the crucial time (2.55am) when the moon was astronomically at its roundest or fullest. This was despite the fact that according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the 15th day of the third lunar month fell on last Friday, the 15th of April. But I still groped for my cameras in the dark and rushed outdoors. Possibly the moon hadn't set yet and I could still take a few pictures of it. Well, I wasn't disappointed. I guess in terms of absolute roundness, four hours or so wouldn't make much of a difference with our normal eyesight.
As an added bonus, a turned around 180o and caught sight of the four planets in the brightening sky, almost equidistance apart. Two celestial sights on the same morning! Priceless. By the way, how often do Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus line up like this in our morning or evening sky? It's not that rare, actually. I'm told that the last time was in 2020, and before that, it occurred in 2016 and 2005. No doubt, we shall witness it again in future years.
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