A special light show Friday

If weather permits, "The Full Cold Moon" will be a free light show Friday night. [Click to enlarge]

Local stargazers might want to step outside tonight to enjoy a wonderful astral sight as the moon reaches its highest, largest and brightest point of 2008.

What Native Americans named the "Full Cold Moon," this month's moon will actually be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons this calendar year.

Because the moon is in both its full phase and at its closest point in orbit to Earth, called its perigee, it will appear especially large near the horizon as the sun sets Friday.

The intense glow of the moon will also light up the landscape when it reaches its highest point in the sky at midnight.