![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2016\/12\/winter_moon\/16582002-1-eng-GB\/Winter_Moon_small.jpg\")
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\nThis gorgeous composite image shows this month\u2019s full Moon, also known as a \u2018Cold Moon\u2019, seeming to hover above a set of satellite tracking dishes on the campus of the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA), in the southern part of the Canary Islands\u2019 Gran Canaria, at Monta\u00f1a Blanca.\n<\/p>\n
\nOne of the antennas \u2013 the 15 m-diameter dish seen at left \u2013 is ESA\u2019s Maspalomas tracking station, which currently communicates with ESA\u2019s Cluster, LISA Pathfinder and XMM-Newton missions.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt was created on 14 December by amateur photographer Claus Vogl, from F\u00fcrth, Germany, who writes: \u201cI spent my vacation last week at Gran Canaria. I spotted the ESA site many years ago and always was fascinated by this big antennas facing into space. The entire shooting window was just two minutes. I shot from on top of a little mountain 1.6 kilometres West of the big antenna, just outside a very little village called Monta\u00f1a la Arena on a narrow dirt road. The camera equipment was a Canon EOS 5D Mark 3 with an EF 70-200\/2.8 IS L lens (exposure time 1.0 sec\/aperture F5.6\/ISO 400).\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nMore information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n
\nEstrack<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nMaspalomas station<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nThis gorgeous composite image shows this month’s full Moon, also known as a ‘Cold Moon’, seeming to hover above a set of satellite tracking dishes on the campus of the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA), in the southern part of the Canary Islands’ Gran Canaria, at Montaña Blanca.\n<\/p>\n \nOne of the antennas – the 15 m-diameter dish seen at left – is ESA’s Maspalomas tracking station, which currently communicates with ESA’s Cluster, LISA Pathfinder and XMM-Newton missions.\n<\/p>\n \nIt was created on 14 December by amateur photographer Claus Vogl, from Fürth, Germany, who writes: “I spent my vacation last week at Gran Canaria. I spotted the ESA site many years ago and always was fascinated by this big antennas facing into space. The entire shooting window was just two minutes. I shot from on top of a little mountain 1.6 kilometres West of the big antenna, just outside a very little village called Montaña la Arena on a narrow dirt road. The camera equipment was a Canon EOS 5D Mark 3 with an EF 70-200\/2.8 IS L lens (exposure time 1.0 sec\/aperture F5.6\/ISO 400).”\n<\/p>\n \nMore information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n