According to the Lunar Glow-in-the-dark calendar for 2018, that I got for a Christmas present, January 2018 brings us a month of extreme lunar phenomena. The Full Moon on New Year’s Day is the largest of the year, with the moon coming to it closest approach to Earth all year, when its distance will be 356,565 kilometres (221,559 miles) at perigee.
The first picture shows the moon shining through cloud as viewed from St Helen’s Wharf.
In the second picture taken from St Helen’s Churchyard, the moon is hidden by the central aisle of St Helen’s Church.
As the skies cleared, the moon was clearly visible from Abingdon – as seen here above the Christmas Candles round the Market Place.
I was amazed by the detail I could see using a compact camera with optical zoom. The image was even clearer than this in the camera screen as the camera rested on one of the Market Place bollards.
This evening, of the 2nd January, as the moon becomes ‘waning gibbous’ the skies are cloudy and rain is falling.
The moon will be the farthest from the earth all year on 15th January. There will be another full moon on 31st January (the first blue moon since July 2015). That full moon will be in total eclipse for 1 hour 16 minutes across Asia, Australia, and western North America.
