Thunder Ridge Ranch

Spring time lambs!

Step outside and enjoy our dark skies!!

🌕✨ December 3 — Tonight the Moon Meets the Seven Sisters ✨🌌

Tonight, December 3, 2025, the sky is about to perform one of its most magical winter displays:
the nearly full 99% illuminated Moon rising right beside the Pleiades, the legendary Seven Sisters.
A golden Moon lifting above snow-lined mountains… an observatory dome pointed toward the heavens… and the icy-blue star cluster glowing beside it.
It looks like a painting — but it’s real, and it’s happening tonight.

🌙 A Rare Lunar Occultation

For millions across North America, Europe, and northern Africa, this isn’t just a close pass —
it’s a lunar occultation.

The Moon will slide directly in front of parts of the Pleiades, hiding several of its brightest stars behind its glowing limb:

• Electra
• Merope
• Maia
• Alcyone

In cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Moon will drift through the center of the cluster itself — a slow-motion cosmic eclipse.
Stars will blink out along its shadowed edge, then reappear minutes later.
A simple pair of binoculars is enough to watch these disappearances despite the Moon’s brilliance.

🌌 The Seven Sisters

Shining from 444 light-years away in the constellation Ta**us, the Pleiades are a young family of hot blue stars — a cluster celebrated in ancient stories from every corner of the world.
Though called the “Seven Sisters,” the cluster actually holds over a thousand stars… with only six or seven visible to the naked eye.

✨ Don’t Miss Tonight’s Cosmic Meeting

Whether you’re inside or outside the occultation zone, step outside after dark and look toward the eastern sky.
The Moon rising beside the Pleiades is one of the most breathtaking alignments of the entire year —
a meeting of lunar gold and ancient blue starlight.

A quiet December night…
A dance of light across the sky…
A moment you’ll remember long after it fades. 🌙💫