After a season of the harvest moon and the blue moon, 2020 is set to close with a final night of a celestial happening.
The 13th full moon of the year is set to take place on one of the last nights of 2020, NJ.com reported.
Deemed the “cold moon,” the celestial body will be in total view and reach its greatest brightness at 10:28 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 29, according to NASA’s calculations.
Prevention reported that no matter what time zone you’re in, you ought to have a clear view of the full moon since it’ll have a high trajectory in the sky.
With that in mind, it’ll be easy to spot the full moon. Find a place with as little artificial light as possible and look upward. You may be able to see the moon before dusk, too, since it will rise before sunset.
Tuesday night’s event, which according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac is named the “cold moon” based on a Mohawk name that speaks to the freezing conditions of this time of year, is the latest in a string of celestial events that have occurred this month alone.
Previously, the “Christmas Star,” which illuminated in the night sky as Saturn and Jupiter formed a “double planet” separated by just 0.1 degrees, and the Ursids meteor shower, which peaked at about 15 meteors per hour, each occurred on Dec. 21.
That’s aside from other astronomical events that have happened this year, including the first full moon in October, the harvest moon, and the Orionid meteor shower that also occurred in October.
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