I should be writing up all my notes from the American Geophysical Union meeting this week. Instead, I've spent the morning rummaging through a newly posted archive of Chang'e 3 and Yutu images from the surface of the Moon. Some of the images it contains are new; some are familiar; but almost all of them are higher quality than ones I've seen before. And it never gets old to see pictures of human-crafted robots on the surfaces of other worlds.

First, enjoy this five-image collage of a waxing Earth in the lunar sky, taken a year ago, from December 20 to 24, 2013. Just imagine! If you were on the surface with Chang'e 3, Earth would always be in pretty much same position in the lunar sky; it just hovers, slowly waxing and waning across the faster-moving patterns made by its rotation and swirling clouds. All the while that Earth waxes brighter and brighter, the Sun dips lower and lower, so by the time Earth gets to half-full, the Sun sets. Earth is your only source of illumination for the next 14 days, as it goes through full and wanes toward last quarter.