The Moon Nearing Full

With the Moon 96.8% illuminated I attempted to photograph features close to the Western limb. The two photos that turned out best were those of the crater Pythagoras (top) and Hevelius (bottom). Both craters had their central peaks just catching the rising sun. Pythagoras has a diameter of 133Km and Hevelius has a diameter of 109Km. Larger versions of the photos are posted on my flickr site

The bright sky spoilt any meaningful observation of galaxies. Their time will soon come as the Moon wanes. I took a look at Saturn. Titan was to its South West with Rhea between it and the planet. Tethys and Dione were very close togather to the East. The shadow of the planet on the rings is now very pronounced.