dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (12/08/84)
The moon reaches the crest of its full phase in the early morning hours on Saturday. More on this full moon -- right after this. December 8 Long Night Moon It's likely that when you hear this, the moon will be just past full -- since the moon is precisely full during the early morning hours on Saturday. But the moon will still look very round and full when it rises Saturday night. Look for the moon to rise in the east shortly after the sun goes down. Tonight that full-looking moon will be riding high in the winter sky. Somewhere around midnight -- when the moon passes the direction due south -- it'll be at about the highest point on the dome of the sky that we've seen it all year. Folkwisdom has it that the moon appears "high in winter, low in summer." But that's true only for the full moon -- when the moon is opposite the Earth from the sun. Right now the sun's path is very low in the sky for northern hemisphere observers -- so the full moon appears just opposite -- or very high in our sky. This full moon is the one nearest the winter solstice, which comes this year on December 21. All the full moons have names -- and this one has two -- it's called the Moon Before Yule -- or the Long Night Moon, in honor of the winter solstice. So look outside during the long winter night for the moon now just past full -- now opposite the sun and taking the high road across the sky. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin