Our last full moon of the year will occur on the night of Saturday, Dec. 14.

As the sun sets behind the southwestern horizon late that afternoon, face the opposite direction and you'll see the full moon rising.

Since we're nearing the winter solstice on the 21st, also known as the first day of winter in the Earth's Northern Hemisphere, we have a good opportunity to check out the movements of the sun and moon across our sky.

Beginning stargazers are often confused about the movements of our natural satellite.

That's not surprising; after all, the moon's orbital motion around the Earth coupled with our own daily rotation can make it quite difficult to follow.

The trick is not to try to grasp the complexities of its roughly 28-day cycle but rather to break down its motion into simple pieces.

Choose just one phase of the moon and try to understand -- or even predict -- how its position will change over time.

And since it's going to be a full moon this week, let's start there.

The full moon occurs when the moon is fully lit by the sun; for that to happen, it must lie on the opposite side of the sky from the sun.

One might expect, therefore, that it will also behave in a manner opposite the sun.

And it does. When the sun sets, the full moon rises. When the sun rises, the full moon sets.

But not only that, it rises and sets exactly on the opposite side of the sky.

To know where the full moon will rise against the eastern horizon, check out your shadow caused by the setting sun. It'll point right toward the position of the rising full moon.

In the Northern Hemisphere wintertime, when the afternoon sun dips below the southwestern horizon, the full moon will rise in the northeast.

During this season the sun rides quite low across the daytime sky, and its rays of light fall on us at a shallow angle and contribute to cooler temperatures.

Because the full moon always behaves contrary, you can expect it to ride high across the winter night sky and set in the northwest.

When? At sunrise, of course!

And, because the wintertime full moon appears so high in the nighttime sky, its light passes through a thinner column of atmosphere and can make the full moon seem quite dazzling.

Of course, in the Northern Hemisphere summertime, the entire scenario is reversed. The summer sun rises in the northeast and rides high across our daytime sky; its high path contributes to our higher temperatures.

The full moon -- always contrary -- rises at sunset in the southeast during the summer and never appears very high in the nighttime sky.

During this time, the moon's light passes through much more atmosphere and therefore never appears quite as bright as in winter.

Over the course of an entire year, you will notice that the rising full moon will swing north and south along the eastern horizon -- just as the sun does during its morning rise, except that the full moon will appear opposite of wherever the sun appeared that morning.