Hasta La Gadget!

Tonight, as you may have heard, is the largest and brightest full moon of the year . This is thanks to the fact that the moon is near perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit to Earth. Tonight’s moon will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons, according to Space.com. And you can’t miss the brilliant, reddish “star” near the Moon: It’s actually the planet Mars, which made its closest approach to Earth (60 million miles) in more than 2 years on Wednesday; it won’t be closer until 2014. Tonight it’s “at opposition,” opposite the sun in the sky and visible all night.

Taking a picture of the Moon can be a challenge. It’s difficult to get a good photo of even a normal full moon because its intense glare tends to wash out detail, especially in brighter areas of its surface. (At a full moon, the Earth is located between the sun and moon, and sunlight is reflected straight back at us, with no shadows to provide contrast.) How to counteract this depends on the type of camera you’re using.