The full moon on the 30th January will occur only three hours before perigee (the point where the moon is closest to earth). This will be the closest full moon of 2010.

On top of this, the earth is at perihelion at the moment (the point where earth is closest to the sun), so the moon will also be extra bright.

Calculations show that the moon should be 33 arcminutes and 30 arc seconds (just over half a degree) in size.

While you’re at it, put a reminder in your calendar to photograph the moon on the 24th August – this is a full moon at apogee (the point where the moon is farthest from earth), where it will appear to be only 29 arcminutes and 24 arcseconds in size.

When you take your photos, I suggest noting down the zoom, iso, shutter speed and aperture so you can compare both the size and relative brightness with August.

Here is a link to a previous post about this.

Source: Wikipedia

Apollo 12 stories from Newspapers on the 12th November 1969.
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Apollo 12 stories from Newspapers on the 11th November 1969.
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Just like I did with the Apollo 11 landing, I’m tweeting the Apollo 12 landing 40 years late.

I’m using the same account so you can find all the tweets at http://www.twitter.com/apolloecho.

Apollo 12 stories from Newspapers on the 10th November 1969.
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The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been orbiting the moon for months calibrating it’s instruments and lowering it’s orbit. It is now in a 50km polar orbit about the moon.

As with any optics, being closer normally results in a higher resolution, and with no atmosphere on the moon to distort images, the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) is now taking the high resolution mapping photos it was designed to take.

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