Sometimes you win - sometimes you lose.

It generally balances out in the long run though.

After a few badly lit nights and early mornings I woke this morning to find a reasonable sky around 5.45 a.m.  

I set up my tripod with the Sigma 172 to 500 
mm lens on it. 
I hitched on the Sony SLT A77. and fired off a few shots with the camera set at 2,000 th of a second down to 1,000 th and varied the lens from f19 to f11. Camera was set to 2x size for most of the pix.

This made the camera equivalent to 1,500 mm lens so I kept the speed up. Like they say if you take at a speed equal to the lens mm you can hold without camera shake if you are lucky. 

Not quite the perigee pic and a faint shadow can 
be seen where the moon is closing down. But better than nothing.
Also got a few shots later, - in, dare I say "Full Light" - if there is such a thing at this time of the year.

For this I used the SLT A55 that I am keeping now as a back up camera.
Not so full of ideas as the A77 but still a flapless camera with the new - to Sony - mirror-less action.

 On that one I had the Tamron 28 to 300mm zoom lens. It might appear a little ridiculous that having bought an 18 to 270 mm, I did not get rid of the 28 to 300 Tamron as part exchange. 
As Bernard Shaw's actress said "Not b****y likely" The usual conversation that would have taken place ? "At the moment, that particular model is flooding the market; with the new lens now out" Then a couple of weeks later passing the shop you find your lens marked up at 4 times the price they paid you. As I wrote before Not B****y  Likely.