December 12, 2008 10:52 AM
Moon gazers - tonight's the night!
I've been known to wake up my kids in the middle of the night for shooting star showers or the shuttle flyover. Good times!
Your chance to make a family memory tonight:: Bundle up the kids, go out and look at the moon - miss it and you'll have to wait 'til 2016.
From The UK Times Online:
Look up tonight for a spectacular treat in the sky Biggest full moon for years enhanced by shooting stars
December 12, 2008
Paul Simons
If the full moon tonight looks unusually large, it is not your imagination - it is the biggest and brightest full moon to be seen for 15 years.
Each month the Moon makes a full orbit around the Earth in a slightly oval-shaped path, and tonight it will swing by the Earth at its closest distance, or perigee. It will pass by 356,613km (221,595 miles) away, which is about 28,000km closer than average.
The unusual feature of tonight is that the perigee also coincides with a full moon, which will make it appear 14 per cent bigger and some 30 per cent brighter than most full moons this year - so long as the clouds hold off from blocking the view.
The next closest encounter with a full moon this large will not be until November 14, 2016.
Read entire article here.
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