Blue Moon

Caz has a school project going on this month. Each night Caz is supposed to go outside and look at the moon. Then he keeps a journal on a calendar of how the moon look. Just draw what the moon looks like each night (crescent, full, etc). Sounds simple, right? Well, night one we go outside. Can't see a thing. It's clear sky. We can see Orion. We can see the big dipper. No moon. So we come back inside. The instruction say that if you can't see the moon, if it's bad weather, just write cloudy. So I tell Caz to write "cloudy" for now. Well, I look up the current phase of the moon on the computer after Caz goes to bed. (Note: Caz told me that they were not allowed to use the computer. But I, at least, like to know what I am looking for.) I see that the current moon phase should be 23% full on the way to a new moon. OK, at least I now know there should be something to see. Well, sure enough, on the way to the gym the next morning at 5 AM, there is a small crescent moon just about the tree tops. Great. Where the hell was it last night? Probably below the horizon and below the tree line. So the next night, we look for a crescent. We search the entire sky. We walk up one street and down the other, looking for a good vantage point and breaks in the tree lines. Nothing. We come up empty. What to do, what to do. I tell him that there were some clouds (and there were) and to draw a cloud in front of the moon. The idea for the project is great. Can we pick a month though, when the moon is high in the night sky and about 20 degrees warmer? Man. It that really too much to ask?