Moon rise.. When does the trouble start?

[barnstorm]

How soon before moon rise does the upper atmosphere start to be effected with light?

I live in a place with light pollution but it seems as if a full 2 hours before moon rise I am seeing the background become more light polluted.

Is this my imagination ?

.

[sologuitarist61]

According to my weather station the moon rises at 1:19am.tomorrow morning, so you will get a clear hour or two (cloud and rain keeping away that is).

[gurneyfan67]

Hello Barnstorm, I think it depends on the Lunar phase at the time. A few nights ago I was outside viewing planets and about half hour before the Moon rose the sky glow east of my house was quite pronouced. I live about 50 miles west of the Cascade Mountains and the clouds tend to pile up against them. So when there is a full Moon it refracts the light which fills the sky in that direction. At other times when the Moon is less than half illuminated it only slightly affects viewing given my in town light polution. At those times I often spend time observing the Moon because the play of light on the terminator is very striking.