Rare Full Moon Rises For Christmas Day 2015

By SHERRI LONON (Patch Staff)

Rudolph might be able to take a year off from Santa’s annual trek around the world this year. It seems the moon will be more than bright enough to stand in for his glowing red nose.

The experts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center anticipate a near full moon Christmas Eve with a peak Christmas Day at 6:11 a.m. EST. That will be the first time the full moon has made a Christmas Day appearance since 1977, The Weather Channel reported. The well-timed occurrence isn’t expected to repeat until 2034.

Like full moons in all other months, Native Americans have special names for December’s. The moon is known as the Oak Moon, Cold Moon or Long Nights Moon, according to Space.com. That website points out that the December full moon “rises around sunset and sets around sunrise; this is the only night in the month when the moon is in the sky all night long. The rest of the month, the moon spends at least some time in the daytime sky.”

Conditions in the Washington, D.C., area are iffy for viewing the full moon. The National Weather Service anticipates a 50 percent chance of showers on Christmas Eve and a mostly cloudy skies on Christmas Day as rain chances increase to 60 percent through the day and night.

Star gazers will find the Christmas full moon isn’t the only reason to look up as the year comes to a close. Space.com also suggests checking out the sky about a half-hour after sunset Dec. 29 when Mercury will be “well placed for observation in the western sky.”

Image via Shutterstock