12-12-2008, 09:54 PM
Tonight is a full moon and if you have clear skies you should try and catch a peek at it because it could be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than any other full moon this year.
This is because tonight's full moon happens to correspond to the moon being at it's perihelion (the closest point to the earth in it's elliptical orbit). This only happens once every few years and tonight happens to be one of those times.
Now I say take a look if you can but don't expect to see anything really major. The human eye isn't that great at detecting differences of these levels, but still it's an astronomical phenomenon that you don't get too many chances to experience so I figured I'd make a note of it. And the most striking time to watch is when it's rising or setting because of psychological effects, the mind always interprets the moon as bigger when close to the horizon, this is actually called the moon illusion.
So anyway, just a silly little thing that I find neat.
This is because tonight's full moon happens to correspond to the moon being at it's perihelion (the closest point to the earth in it's elliptical orbit). This only happens once every few years and tonight happens to be one of those times.
Now I say take a look if you can but don't expect to see anything really major. The human eye isn't that great at detecting differences of these levels, but still it's an astronomical phenomenon that you don't get too many chances to experience so I figured I'd make a note of it. And the most striking time to watch is when it's rising or setting because of psychological effects, the mind always interprets the moon as bigger when close to the horizon, this is actually called the moon illusion.
So anyway, just a silly little thing that I find neat.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.