Rare Christmas Day Full Moon This Year

It will be the first full moon on Christmas Day since 1977.

The moon will reach peak size, perigee, at 5:11 a.m. central/ 6:11 a.m. eastern time on Christmas Day.

December's full moon is known as a "Full Cold Moon," but it rarely falls on Christmas Day. It is known as a full cold moon because December nights are the longest of the year, so the full moon gets long to shine, and temperatures typically are cold.

NASA reports that the next full moon on Christmas won't come until the year 2034, so if you want to see the rare treat, this year is the only option for a very long time.

The report is from AL.com, a website about news in Alabama. To accompany the report they published striking photos, taken by Eric Schultz of AL, of the 2014 Harvest Moon rising over Saturn rockets at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; here's one: