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The full moon will reach its apex this week early Friday, November 23, while most of Britain is still asleep. Astronomers are waiting for the lunar orb to reach the peak of its full moon around 5:39 am GMT (UTC). Once this happens, the sunny face of the moon will be 100% illuminated, bathing the Earth with its bright, shiny glow.
But if you take a moment to look at the night sky right now, you will notice that the Moon is already spectacularly large and bright.
Indeed, the so-called Gibbous Crescent Moon is already lit up to over 97% tonight.
For the casual observer, the Moon will always appear full until a day or two before and after the Full Moon.
However, anyone with a telescope powerful enough to capture Earth's natural satellite should be able to tell the difference between a Full Moon and a Gibbous Moon in Growth or Unleashing.
READ MORE: Why is the November moon called the Beaver Moon?
Why is the moon so big tonight?
As the Moon travels the space around the Earth and the Sun, the same sunny side of the Moon faces our planet's origin each day.
At any one time, half of the Moon faces the Earth and the other half faces the Sun.
But as the moon revolves around the sun, the amount of sunlight returned by the moon is different each night.
The NASA space agency explained: "The moon does not have any light alone. Moonlight is the sunlight that bounces off the surface of the moon.
"As the moon turns around the Earth, the sun illuminates the whole side of the moon facing it.
"For the sun, it's always a full moon."
Because we see the Moon from the center of its orbit, we see different parts of its sunny side.
These differences are the so-called lunar phases of the Moon.
The four main phases are the new dark moon at the beginning of the lunar cycle, the first lunar quarter, the fully illuminated full moon, and the third lunar quarter.
Each lunar cycle lasts approximately 28 to 29 days and begins and ends on a new moon.
The Full Moon marks the midpoint of the cycle when the Moon is sitting behind the Earth and facing the Sun.
NASA said: "While the luminous parts of the moon seem to change shape during the month, each stage of change calls for a phase and each phase bears its own name."
The Moon will then enter the third quarter phase, when its left side will be illuminated on November 30th.
The lunar orb will then disappear from sight, the New Moon, on December 7th.
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