Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.

But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here's how the moon works:

The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth - which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days - is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.

As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.

Full moon craziness

Many people think full moons cause strange behavior among animals and even humans. In fact several studies over the years have tried to tie lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, and more. Connections have been inclusive or nonexistent.

The moon does have some odd effects on our planet, and there are oodles of other amazing moon facts and misconceptions:

A full moon at perigee also brings higher ocean tides. This tug of the moon on Earth also creates tides in the planet's crust, not just in the oceans.
Beaches are more polluted during full moon, owing to the higher tides.
In reality, there's no such thing as a full moon. The full moon occurs when the sun, Earth and the moon are all lined up, almost. If they're perfectly aligned, Earth casts a shadow on the moon and there's a total lunar eclipse. So during what we call a full moon, the moon's face is actually slightly less than 100 percent illuminated.
The moon is moving away as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 cm) a year.
The moon illusion

Finally, be sure to get out and see the full moon as it rises, right around sunset. Along the horizon, the moon tends to seem even bigger. This is just an illusion.

You can prove to yourself that this is an illusion. Taking a small object such as a pencil eraser, hold it at arm's length, and compare its size to that of the moon just as it rises. Then repeat the experiment later in the night and you'll see that the moon compares the same in both cases. Alternately, snap two photos of the moon, with a digital camera or your cell phone, when the moon is near the horizon and later when it's higher in the sky. Pull both photos up on your computer screen and make a side-by-side comparison.

Astronomers and psychologists agree the moon illusion is just that, but they don't agree on how to explain it.
Tonight's Full Moon: What You Can See

What time is it rising tonight?

http://hydromet.gov.bz/General_forecast.htm

"Full Moon energy is used for banishing unwanted influences in your life; protection magick; and divination. Planning, releasing, and working backwards in time are done on the full moon as well.

It is said that the best Full Moon magick can be conjured for seven days: the three days prior to the Full Moon, the night of the Full Moon itself, and three days after the Full Moon. Sometimes the results of Full Moon magick can take aproximately one moon cycle to take hold and come to completion.

The Full Moon is the time to invoke the Mother Goddess at the height of her glory, this is when the ceremony called "Drawing Down the Moon" is performed. During this ceremony the energy and essence of the Full Moon is drawn into oneself, when done properly you will feel a heightened trance state combined with a power surge that radiates through your whole body. Traditionally this is only done within a protective circle."

All you pagans get out there and worship!!!! :-)

Is someone taking photographs of it to put on here??

This is what it looked like at around 7:30pm

is that a Canadian flag I see??

Great picture BTW

Or around two hours later

very cool peter thanks!!!!

Wow, thanks for the shots Peter.

I saw the moon around 6pm. The sun was still shining - the moon was orange/yellow, looked huge and the sky was so clear. The moon looked majestic.

We are really lucky to see such gorgeous sights over the caribbean sea.

Neighborhood dogs did a full harmonizing howl together...beautiful!

I experienced a group of dogs all howling at the moon too. It was quite amusing.

I howl at the moon full or not

that explains it! i didnt know about any of this. we had just left from a visit Axeman & Becky in maryland, and there it was, huge, just above the horizon - exactly as amanda described it. it stayed orange for some time, until it hit maybe 40 degrees rise. it was really cool.

Good night for watching the rays at the end of the dock!

Nice, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a beautiful night.

Im still howling

who cares...

You better