Full Frosty Moon, Pleiades chill midnight sky
Discuss Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Wednesday, Nov 12 2008
Around sunset tonight, it’s an almost full moon that appears low in the eastern sky. Your calendar might say that November 13’s moon is the full moon. The November full moon falls on November 13 at 6:17 Universal Time. That’s in the middle of the night tonight for us in the U.S. So if you’re in the U.S., tonight’s moon is a fuller moon than the one you’ll see tomorrow night.
Another fixture of late autumn – the Pleiades star cluster – shines all night long near tonight’s moon. The moon and Pleiades appear together in your east-northeast sky at dusk and your west-northwest sky at dawn. At midnight, the full moon and Pleiades shine nearly overhead.
The cluster is also called the Seven Sisters, but most people can only spot six Pleiades stars. To counter tonight’s moonlit glare, use binoculars to see the Pleiades, a very small starlit dipper. Then watch in the coming evenings as the moon moves away, and the Pleiades shines in a darker sky.
All the full moons have names. One name for the November full moon is the Frosty Moon. It’s fitting that the full Frosty Moon accompanies the Pleiades stars. This cluster glitters like hoarfrost on the stellar dome, and the Pleiades’ all-night appearance every November is a sparkling reminder of the frosty season ahead!
