Expert: Tom Whiting - 10/12/2008

Question
Is there a chart where I plan where and when there will be a full moon. What do I need to use it.

Thanks
Tom

Answer
Hi Tom
U.S. Naval observatory has a website for all the phases and their dates and times in UT (remember to substract, if you're in the Eastern time zone...subtract 4 hours during our Stupid Daylight Savings time, and 5 hours during the non-Daylight savings months)...at
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.php

Or if you don't need it super-accurate, most conventional annual calendars list the phase dates....sometimes in UT, and other times in EST or PST, so it depends on the manufacturer of the calendar.  That's why some calendars can be a day....different on the phases.  

Actually as astronomers (who generally hate the bright moon due to the light pollution), we want to know the weekend of the NEW moon, not the full moon. We rarely go out with a bright moon. And we plan all our vacation dates around new moon, not full moon. New moon this month is Oct 28, so we have 2 weekends of observing with no moon interference, 24, 25 (eastern sky early morning crescent) and 31, Nov 1 with a thin western evening crescent which sets before total darkness falls.
Hope this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

FOLLOW UP:
Where and when?  When it's full moon, the entire Earth (during their
hours of darkness on their side of the Earth) get the same full
moon, and the same for all the other phases too. (Well, the other side of the world, it's full moon - 12 hours later, but that's still a pretty full moon.)

The moon-phase-charted website I gave you, all you need is a computer which has internet access.
Clear Skies,
Tom

FOLLOW UP:
Star Chart? Oh, the moon can't be plotted on a single sky chart (just like the planets) because they move from night to night, and month to month. So no lunar position can be plotted on a paper chart, nor can the positions of the planets because they move too.
Only a computer interactive sky "chart" will plot the moon and planets because you can dial in any date you want on those. My favorites are public owned "Skyglobe" and the Google night sky programs. But standard sky atlases like Norton's and Cambridge 2000.0
do not plot planets and moon because they are not stationary in our
night sky. You just have to know where they are, from other sources;
Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Telescope website and magazine...places
like that. Most astronomers already know this stuff, as they keep
up on it all the time because it's in...their interest.
Clear Skies,
Tom