Full Moon Friday: What You Can See

Talk to most astronomers, and you'll find that they have a thing about the full moon. The reason is that a full moon is the No. 1 cause of natural light pollution. Its brilliant light floods the night sky, dimming all the stars and nebulae, causing astronomers to pack away their telescopes and watch television instead.

However, to dedicated skywatchers like us, the moon has its own fascination, especially when it is full, as it will be Friday, Sept. 4. After all, this is the only object in the solar system on which we can see a wealth of detail without any optical aid whatsoever.

The full moon is particularly appealing at this time of year when it rises just around sunset and hovers low in the southern sky most of the night.

The first thing to look for is the man in the moon, or perhaps you can more easily see the woman in the moon or even the rabbit in the moon. One way or another, you can probably see a pattern of some sort in the play of bright and dark markings across the moon's face. The darker areas are known as maria (singular mare, Latin for sea), though they have never seen a drop of water in the last four billion years. The lighter areas are mostly cratered highlands, where relatively recent asteroids have crashed into the moon's surface, exposing bright rock beneath the surface.

The largest dark area on the moon, on the left side, is actually called an "ocean": theOceanus Procellarum or Ocean of Storms. Just above it, and almost as large, is theMare Imbrium or Sea of Showers. Opposite Imbrium on the right side of the moon is a triangle of three smaller "seas": the Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity), Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) and Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). link...