Will you catch the last full moon of the year? ⁣ :

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The full moon in December has many nicknames. Northern Europeans call it the Moon before Yule after the winter festival that is now associated with Christmas. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, some Native Americans call the December full moon the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon. (This full moon occurs near the solstice, which has the longest night of the year.)⁣

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This photograph of a nearly full moon was taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft on Dec. 22, 1968. The historic mission had launched the day before to demonstrate a lunar trajectory and prepare for eventual landings on the Moon. After circling the Moon 10 times on Christmas Eve, the Apollo 8 crew headed home and successfully splashed down in the Pacific a couple of days later. This marked the first time that humans from Earth had visited the Moon and returned home safely.⁣

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Image description: A nearly full moon stands out against the blackness of space. The moon is expressed in textured patterns of gray and white. Crisium, the circular, dark-colored area near the center, is near the eastern edge of the Moon as viewed from Earth. Mare Nectaris is the circular mare near the terminator. The large, irregular maira are Tranquillitatis and Fecunditatis. The terminator on the left side of picture crosses Mare Tranquillitatis and highlands to the south. Lunar farside features occupy most of the right half of the picture. The large, dark-colored crater Tsiolkovsky is near the limb at the lower right. Conspicuous bright rays radiate from two large craters, one to the north of Tsiolkovsky, the other near the limb in the upper half of the picture. ⁣

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Credit: NASA⁣

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27 December 2023