The moon reaches the crest of its “full”:http://earthsky.org/article/full-moon phase at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning “Universal Time”:http://earthsky.org/article/universal-time.
For the Americas, that means the moon will be most full in the wee morning hours before sunrise Friday morning. We in the northern hemisphere call the July full moon the “Thunder Moon”:http://earthsky.org/kids/52490/full-moon-nams.
No matter where you live, the moon will look full tonight and tomorrow. And – near the moon – you’ll see Jupiter, the king of planets. Jupiter lies 5 times farther from the sun than Earth. But this world is the 4th brightest light in our sky – after the sun, moon and planet Venus.
Unlike the stars, which shine with their own light, the moon and Jupiter shine by reflecting sunlight. Jupiter looks bright because it’s big, and its surface is covered with very reflective clouds. Jupiter could hold 1,300 of our Earths, and it reflects more than 50% of sunlight striking its clouds.
In contrast to Jupiter, the moon is small and dull. Fifty moons could fit inside Earth, and the moon reflects only 12% of incoming sunlight. The moon looks big and bright to us only because it’s nearby. The moon is about 400,000 kilometers – a quarter million miles – away.
Jupiter lies more than 1,500 times the moon’s distance tonight. In the world’s eastern hemisphere – Australia and New Zealand – the moon will be at its fullest on Friday evening after sunset.
