Lunar twilight?

Is there such a thing as lunar twilight? In other words, does a nearly full moon (say 3 days past full) brighten the sky at all before rising, or can it essentially be ignored?

Just curious :S

Doug

I know in my experience, you can definately tell the difference in the color of the sky when the moon is rising, (but below the horizon). It can be ignored at first, but will get brighter and brighter. It will start are kind of an orangish tint then as the moon rises, there goes your dark skys. It is a lot dimmer than the sun of course, but nonetheless, you will be able to tell where and when the moon will be rising, (not that it changes). Tom

Doug,

I can confirm the lunar twilight is very obvious from a dark site, especially when the moon is nearly full.

I remember my first attempt at finding the edge on faint galaxy NGC 891 with a 6". That was a foolhardy attempt when the lunar twighlight was building fast and the galaxy was low in the east at the time. I didn't realize then how difficult a sighting that would be even under the best skies. Just chuckle to myself now how absurd of an attempt that was.

Mike