Well, don’t expect to see the flag the Apollo 11 astronauts (allegedly) left on the moon, but if you stop reading this article on Friday night and pop your head out the window (mayhaps even bring your family on a stroll), you’ll see the brightest and biggest moon in the last 15 years, given a clear sky that is.

Although a full moon happens every 28 days, today Luna will appear 30% brighter and 14% larger than other full moons seen this year. In other words it’ll be big and glowing.

This will happen due to our lovely Luna being much closer tonight than usual. The moon travels around the earth in an elliptical orbit that is elongated, and not round. It will tonight be at its closest point to the earth, the perigee.

The perigee, and its counterpart the apogee, are each reached once a month respectively, but the nature of the moon’s orbit makes it so that the exact distance those points are from the Earth varies over the year.

Add to that the fact that the moon phase can be different at each perigee, and you’ll see that the two events coinciding – very close proximity to the earth and a full moon – don’t happen very often, making the event “particularly special”, according to Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

The event tomorrow will also be the closest lunar perigee since 1993, with the moon at 221,560 miles (356,566 kilometers) from Terra. The farthest apogee of the year will happen a few weeks later on December 26, when Luna will be 252,650 miles (401,601 kilometers) from our home world.

For a particularly spectacular effect try to catch the moon as it either rises or sets, because that’s when it will appear the largest. According to scientists this is due to an optical illusion. When the moon is closest to the horizon, our perception interprets it as being bigger than it actually is, as it contrasts with familiar objects on the ground. This doesn’t happen when the moon is high up in the sky.. This is called the “moon illusion”.

"The size may be striking when it's near the horizon," said Robert Massey of the UK Royal Astronomical Society.

Another interesting effect of the moon’s closeness to the earth is its effect on Terra’s tides. According to Ben Burress of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California, high tides occur each month when the sun, Earth, and moon are aligned. But tonight the effect is going to be even more pronounced, due to the moon’s pull being stronger. "This would result in extra-large tides in regions that are susceptible to them, like Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy, Burress said.

So if tonight you have a clear sky, and are fancy to the idea of seeing the biggest and brightest moon in the past 15 years go outside at sunset and keep your eyes on the east. You can even stay up all night and watch the moon’s chariot tread its eternal journey across the cosmic paths, seeing it just a bit closer tonight. So close, that one almost feels as if they could spread their wings and fly out to meet her. EB out.