Friday, March 18, 2011

Super Moon Tonight

If the moon looks a little big bigger and brighter this weekend (full tonight), there is a reason for that.

Saturday morning's full moon will be a super "perigee moon" - the biggest in almost 20 years. This celestial even is far rarer than the famed blue moon, which happens once about every two and a half years. Full moons look different because of the elliptical shape of the moon's orbit. When it's in perigee, the moon is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than when it's a the farthest point of its orbit, also known as apogee. Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the moons orbit.

The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March 1993.

In addition, the first day of spring is March 20th.

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