I rose early and stepped outside into clear cool darkness, it was well before daylight. I started my routine brisk morning walk through the tree lined neighborhood, head down and lost in thought. Suddenly, as I rounded a corner and the trees cleared and I was stopped dead in my tracks. Low in the Southern sky was a huge full moon moon trailed by planets—Venice, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, were there others? The vision in the sky was amazing, and the surrounding landscape was transformed by light. I was struck with the thought that the way we interact with the heavens and the world around us has so much to do with light. What would the ancients have made of such a moonscape—what would it foretell—would it bring celebration and wonder? Would it bring death? Past…