The moon's a balloon

Last night's moon photographed by Mal Durbin

Anyone looking at the moon last night might have thought there was something a bit strange going on.

The moon looks larger and brighter than usual at the moment, because of an optical illusion.

Its current orbit means that it's very low down in the sky - which makes the moon look much bigger, relative to street lights and buildings

Breakfast's Ben Ando has been looking at the moon and talking to experts.

We set an assignment for some of the viewers who'd sent us pictures of Tuesday's solstice sunrise.

We asked if they could capture the fuller than usual moon on camera and send us the results.

We're using two viewers' images so far: photographer Mal Durbin sent us this magnificent view of the moon.

Full moon in Shropshire: photograph by Gill Berry

And, Gill Berry from Shrophsire, sent us her picture of the moon from the Burway above Church Stretton near Ludlow.

You can see clearly from her photo that the moon is, indeed, much lower in the sky than usual.