Twelve Full Moons

June 09, 2006

0505-0604_12full_moon_carre

Provided and copyright by: Laurent Laveder, Optics of the Atmosphere Gallery
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Laurent Laveder

The dozen full Moons pictured above were imaged from May 2005 through April 2006, from Quimper, Bretagne, France. This patient photography shows subtle differences in each of the Moons. For example, notice that as a result of libration effects, the positions of the dark areas (maria) and light areas of the Moon shift ever so slightly from frame to frame. In addition, the full Moon for August is obviously bigger than February's -- the Moon was approximately 406,000 km distant on February 14, 2006 (apogee) but only 357,000 km away on August 19, 2005 (perigee). See animation link below.

Photo details: Olympus Camedia 5060, DCL-4337 eyepiece, Megrez 80/480 refractor, 100 ASA, 1/250 to 1/500 sec.

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