December 2011 full moon

The full moon for December 2011 (variously known as the Long Night Moon, Bitter Moon, Cold Moon, Christmas Moon, etc.) was not easy to find here in Boca, blanketed as we were under clouds and buffeted by winds. But for a few brief moments the night after the day’s full moon (9:36 a.m. local time, so not above the horizon), the moon was in the clear. The low clouds were scudding by in the fairly stiff breezes, and that must have affected the seeing, because I never did get a clear shot. But here is the one I got, to bring two years’ worth of full moons to the gallery:

At the time, the moon was not too far away from apogee (five days previously), so it presented a slightly smaller target than it might have near perigee. But it’s not distance (395632 km at the time of the picture) that affects moon shots; it’s the local weather. It seems that there are always clouds and wind, unless there aren’t.

Here, below, are the shots I’ve managed to get over the two years this project has been running: