December full moon

 The traditional name for the full moon of December is the "Cold Moon".  Full moon occurred near 2 am MST on 15 Dec.  These images were taken more than 15 hr later with an AT72EDII refractor (432mm FL, f/6).

Cold Moon rising over the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Four hours later, above the clouds:

Jupiter is the second brightest object in the sky at this hour.

Jupiter (overexposed) and its Galilean moons (from LL):  Callisto, Europa, Io, Ganymede.

The four Galilean moons can be seen with very modest equipment.  I was able to spot them easily with a tripod-mounted 50-mm refractor at 10 x.  Twenty power (20 x) is enough to see not only the moons but the disc of Jupiter as well.  The moons should be visible with a 7x50 binocular if the instrument is on a stable mount.  I tried to spot them hand-held, but there is too much shake.  The telescope that Galileo used was a 20x30mm refractor (20 power, 30 mm diameter).