Those looking up tonight will see the biggest full moon the Earth has seen since 1993. To best view the effect, look at the moon while it's on the horizon line, when "illusion will mix with reality to produce a truly stunning view," according to Tony Phillips, Science@NASA's production editor.
"For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you can almost reach out and touch it," he writes on the Science@NASA Web site.
The moon's proximity to Earth also will affect tides, pulling the tide higher than normal between an inch and six inches.
Every month, the oblong lunar orbit brings the moon closer to Earth, but this year the moon is full just four hours after hitting perigee. That means it will be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than any other full moon this year. The full moon at perigee won't occur again until 2016.
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