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Rising in the east at sunset, the New Year's Eve full moon will reach its highest point at midnight, noted Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Space-Transit Planetarium and host of PBS television's long-running show Star Gazer.
"Full moons around winter solstice rise their highest for the entire year," Horkheimer added.
"Even if you are downtown in a large city, if it is clear at the stroke of midnight the moon will be very visible if you look up."
In any location, the high, silvery orb will seem like a floodlight cast on the landscape, added Horkheimer, who is organizing a national moon-howling contest around this year's blue moon.
"This is especially true where the ground is covered with a blanket of snow. There is nothing quite so spectacular as a snow-covered scene under a December full moon at midnight."