Name The Moon, Luna, Lunar Satellite

Characteristics The largest single light or light reflecting source in the night sky, a white to whitish sliver, to round object marked by numerous craters.

Observability The moon revolves around the earth and under goes a cycle of phases, from new, to waxing, to full, and finally waning, every 28 days. During these phases, the amount of reflective surface of the moon which is visible from earth grows during the waxing phase, reaches a maximum at full, and then decreases during the waning phase to a point when it is not visibly reflecting the sun's light during a new moon.

The moon rises and sets opposite the sun during a full moon, and with the sun during a new moon. During the waxing phase, as the rise and set time gradually moves later each day, more of the moon is visibly reflecting light. During the waning phase, as the rise and set move later with each passing day, less and less of the surface is visible.

In the northern hemisphere, while the sun reaches it's maximum height in the sky during summer at the solstice, the moon is again opposite of the sun. During a full moon, it will transit at it's lowest point in the sky during in summer, and at it's highest point in the sky in winter. Consequently winter full moons, and especially winter full moons when the orbit is closer to the Earth than normal, are the brightest of the year.

Curiosities No actual fever is detectable when a person is experiencing a "Full Moon Fever". Listening to Tom Petty is the only know cure for this psychosomatic condition.