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The penultimate full moon of 2020, known as the Beaver Moon, will rise in the skies of the UK on Monday evening.
The name comes from the Native American tradition, who called it that as it generally coincided with them placing their beaver traps.
The Beaver Moon officially peaked at 9.29am on November 30th, so it wasn’t actually visible, however it will continue to appear full Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
The moon will rise over the UK shortly after 4pm, just nine minutes after sunset. Then it will set just before sunrise on Tuesday, around 7.30am.
The sky will appear suitably dark and the full moon more pronounced between 6pm and 6am.
The best time to see a full moon will be during these times when it rises or sets, as a particular optical illusion means that it actually appears larger when it is near the horizon.
The Moon Illusion, as it is known, occurs due to the way the brain processes visual information, although the exact science behind it is still unclear.
The space seen from a grandmother’s garden
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By associating the size of the moon with objects that appear nearby, such as trees and buildings on the horizon, it appears relatively larger than it is when surrounded only by stars high up in the sky.
“In general, the proposed explanations have to do with a couple of key elements of how we visually perceive the world: how our brain perceives the size of objects that are closest or farther away, and how far we expect objects to be when you are close to the horizon, “NASA explained in a recent blog post.
“There are also those who think that the foreground objects in your lunar view play a role … But this is not a perfect explanation either. Even the NASA astronauts in orbit see the illusion of the moon and have no foreground objects plan to act as clues to distance. So, more is likely to happen. “
The last full moon of 2020, known as the Cold Moon, will take place on December 30th.
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