December Moon, the ISS and an astronomical catch-up!

Beautiful crescent Moon  last night: notice how a mountain peak near the south pole is catching the sunlight! If you have any sort of lens on your DSLR, this is a great time of year for lunar photography! I set the 'backlight' fully left and use a low ISO (200 or 400)

Tonight the International Space Station begins a series of passes, starting at 5.25. with another at 7.00: there's a table of the next ten days' passes below.

At the moment there are several planets viewable around dawn and dusk: Mercury and Mars rise just before the Sun, while Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are visible low in the west just after Sunset...