The full moon, the Snow Moon, takes charge of the night sky on Sunday night. It is a big moon, a big full moon. The moon will also be close to us, almost in perigee. It is unlikely you’ll be able to tell a difference from seeing other past full moons. Technically, astronomers are not calling this moon a “super moon” because the moon is just shy past perigee.

The moon will be in the zodiacal constellation Cancer, a constellation we associate with spring. The moon rises in the eastern sky at about sunset and rises fairly quickly. By midnight, the moon is in proximity, not too close, to our zenith.

Cancer, the crab, is one of the smallest nondescript constellations in the zodiac, nestled between the two larger constellations Leo (to the east) and Gemini (to the west). The constellation is made up of faint stars. To its credit, the constellation hosts one of the largest and most visible of star clusters in our galaxy. Called The Beehive, the cluster inspired early astronomers to name it appropriately; so many stars buzzing around together in a tight area.

Use the full moon to mark the constellation in the sky Sunday. Look again in two weeks with binoculars, when the moon is far away,  and it is pretty easy to get the sense of why that group of stars is called the Beehive.