Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!...

 

It's... SuperMoon!

The December full moon, known as the Cold Full Moon (not too tough to figure out why that name), is the last full moon of 2025, and a SuperMoon.

Because it’s a Supermoon, it may appear slightly larger and brighter than a typical full Moon—up to 8% larger in diameter and 16% brighter. For most casual observers, the difference is subtle, but it’s more noticeable if compared to a micromoon, when the Moon is at its farthest point from Earth.

Being near perigee and full, this Moon can also produce slightly higher tides, known as perigean spring tides or king tides, especially along coastlines, though the effect is modest.

But, here in the desert, it makes for a bright evening in the cloudless sky...

 Best viewing: just after moonrise, as it comes up in the east - and when that photo above was taken.

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This morning, while taking Murphy outside...

 Looking east southeast, the clouds lit up over South Mountain.  The full moon was showing the other direction, but no clouds being lit by the rising sun in that direction.