Hurray! I finally get to explain the "rabbit/duck" moon illusion that was so clear in the sky this weekend as the nearly full waxing gibbous moon rose in the southeastern sky!

Here is a link to a version of the image file that is more clear.

I always saw a "face" in the moon, either happy or sad, depending on the angle the moon was rising or setting and probably affected by the libration angle. Our friend Kim told me about the rabbit/duck sometime back in the 1980s. All these years I have been trying to find a picture of the moon that was good enough to use to illustrate this point, and I think I finally found it. The picture of the nearly full moon with a halo caused by pollen appeared on the Spaceweather page on May 20, 2008. The pollen acted as a filter that allowed the dark areas of the moon to show up distinctly using less contrast than in traditional moon pictures taken in bright black and white light. These pictures more closely resemble how the moon looks to the naked eye.

You will have more chances to see the moon this weekend in the morning sky near Jupiter.