Severe storms are rolling through central Minnesota including the Twin Cities

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The last full moon of the decade will become 100 percent full on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 11:12 p.m. Central time.

While the Farmer’s Almanac might tease a bit of superstition for Eastern time zone stargazers, it’s not an issue for the rest of us.

This full moon is sometimes referred to as the “Long Night Moon” or the “Full Cold Moon” since the midwinter night is longer than the other full moon nights we experience. (After we hit the winter solstice Saturday, Dec. 21, we’ll start gaining daylight.)

But that’s not the only celestial event we can look forward to this week.

 peaks on Friday night and Saturday morning. 

The source of the meteors? A rock comet called 

On a dark night, it’s possible to spot up to 50 or more meteors per hour when the Geminid shower is at its peak. Unfortunately, the bright moonlight that night will likely make it harder to spot as many.

Correction: (Dec. 12, 2019): This story originally had the wrong date for when the full moon would reach its peak Central time.

Matt Mikus

Author

The last full moon of the decade will be at its peak Wednesday night. But it might make spotting the Geminid meteor shower Friday night a bit harder to spot.

Night sky watching? Last full moon of the year and a meteor shower peak

Go Deeper.

Like this?