Full Moon at Perigee

Tonight's full moon coincided with its perigee (closest point to the earth) which makes the full moon brighter and bigger than normal. Some cloud about, but a few breaks that enable me to take some photos - 1/300th of a second at f:5.6

Taken at 5:30pm on December 12th - the "fullest" full moon till 2016

This is one of Galileo's drawings of the Moon from Sidereus Nuncius - clearly looks nothing like the real thing! The large crater below the centre does not exist but is "artistic license" - or "propaganda" as Feyerabend would say.

View from my desk - 5:40pm

One of my favourite photos from the Nasa site - the earth and moon together, taken from the Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter. The moon is actually in the foreground!