by the light of the (spectacular) moon...

Tonight's moon-viewing was an awesome sight! I hope you were able to get a peek at it! It was a full moon at its closest perigee (the nearest it gets to Earth during its orbit around our planet), and according to National Geographic, the moon that rose tonight appears "about 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than other full moons seen so far this year."

This view of the moon was particulary special because, according to Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, "Typically we don't have the full moon phase and perigee coinciding at the same time." And to make the event even more of a treat, this is the closest lunar perigee since 1993 (at 221,560 miles from Earth) giving moon-watchers a view of the biggest and brightest full moon seen since 1993.

Well, not being one to stay inside and miss such a momentous photographic occasion, my Canon and I went out for a little photo shoot. At first I was unsuccessful at getting any details of the moon...it just didn't look like what I was seeing with my eyes. Then, with a little experimenting with the ISO and use of my mega-zoom, I was able to capture the shots below...

Enjoy the moon view with me... the earlier shots were a beautiful golden color as the moon rose into the sky...

As the moon climbed higher into the sky, it became brighter and more brilliant white...

Praise him, sun and moon,

praise him, all you shining stars.

~Psalm 148:3

And when you look up to the sky and see the sun,

the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—

do not be enticed into bowing down to them

and worshiping things the LORD your God

has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you...

to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

~Deuteronomy 4:19-20

"For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more."
This is what the LORD says,

he who appoints the sun to shine by day,

who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the LORD Almighty is his name...

~Jeremiah 31: 34b-35

• for a light in the night! (152)