"The Closest, Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of the Year!"

Scheduled air date: 1998 Oct 26-Nov 01

At about 216,000 mi./347,000 km from Earth, next week's Full Moon will be the closest of 1998.  This illustrates the position of the Moon (as well as that of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars) at two-hour intervals during the night of November 3rd.  (Shown for mid-Northern latitudes; times are local and in 24-hour format: 17:50=5:50pm, 23:50=11:50pm, 05:50=5:50am.)

First Quarter Moon is on October 28th, and Full Moon is on November 9th.  Because the sunlight (which illuminates the Moon) comes from behind the viewer at Full Moon, it appears about nine times brighter than at First or Last Quarter, when the sunlight comes from the side.

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.