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.
--------
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.
4 comments:
It was really bright on Wednesday night for 99%, but cloudy and rainy all day yesterday and last night for the peak full moon. Lucy is NOT amused when it rains - that inhibits her outdoor yard time. She flaps in and jumps on me, saying "pet me dry".
A question about your cat flap door: are the cats out on their own, or are they contained somehow once they go out that door? Smoke the cat (our first cat) "disppeared" for 10 days, and that was the start of our "leash" time with all our cats after that.
Lucy goes out through the master bedroom window flap onto the front ledge, then has complete run of the outdoors, but she typically stays in our yard. (Most of the neighbors have dogs). Duke has a flap from the TV room that takes him out to the screened porch, giving him a taste of outdoors when he wants it. We cannot let him run free since he is so aggressive to other animals. He has obviously been a street fighter and is FIV positive as a result. So he must stay an indoor kitty. High maintenance, but loving to humans. If Murphy had 8-foot concrete walls that he could not jump over, it would be similar.
Inspired by Rufus, we tried the jacket and leash thing for a while that first spring. He liked being outdoors. Our main goal was to teach him where his doors were if he ever got out - this is where you come back to. But it became obvious he was on red alert the whole time so it was actually counter-productive. We stopped doing that after he attacked Lucy who got within the radius of the leash. Duke is FAST and fierce. I got bit badly on the hand trying to separate them.
We realize that the outdoor world is risky for felines, but they do enjoy the intellectual stimulation and freedom. It is a balance. We accept the risk, and the vet bills. Fortunately [knock wood] we have never lost a kitty who just disappeared or got hit by a car. (A few close calls though, including the Siamese that liked going outside in Anchorage during the summer. A bald eagle liked to sit on the street light in our front yard, but never got her). They have all lived to the point where various diseases got them as old cats.
Thanks for the explanation - I wondered about that cat flap situation. That 10 day period where Smoke was gone, left us all imagining the worst. Before we had moved into town, Smoke got to go out every night (weather permitting) - never an issue, and each morning there would be a "trophy" left by the door on our rear deck.
The couple who had Molly before we adopted her let her out all the time. She was quite worldly, and would always look both ways before crossing the street. The first thing we did when she became ours was a thorough vet exam; she was FIV+, so her outdoor time after that was several times daily, on a leash. She had no issue with that... she would have walked right beside me without the leash, but marinas all have "leash rules." Judging by the reaction we got, that rule wasn't meant for cats. ;-)
Post a Comment