A Full Moon occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly opposite each other.
If you live on the East coast of the U.S., a nice way to start your week might be to wake up Monday morning before the Sun rises to see the Full Moon. The Moon will reach its peak in fullness at 5:27 am. Then, as the Full Moon sinks below the Western horizon, the Sun will rise over the Eastern horizon at 6:47 am.
This diagram shows the Moon at peak fullness, exactly opposite the Sun. The Moon is above the horizon and the Sun is below the horizon. If you are in New York, the Moon will set over the Hudson River.
Yesterday, September 10, two satellites, named GRAIL A and GRAIL B, were launched by NASA to explore the Moon and make a high resolution map of its gravitational field. The satellites will arrive respectively on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The work that these satellites will do on the Moon is timed to occur between the next two Solar Eclipses, of December 10, 2011 and June 4, 2012. This mission was timed so that there will never be a gap in sunlight from a solar eclipse as the project runs on solar power.
As we experience the Full Moon in Pisces, this can mark a culmination of what we do not know or see but what we feel. We know that the Moon has a gravitational pull on the Earth, although we do not have the high resolution map. The invisible can often drive us to create high resolution evidence, in our search for what is real especially as the Full Moon lights up a dark sky.
