Physorg.com alerts us to the Biggest Full Moon of the Year:
It's no illusion. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and this Friday's is a whopper. Why? The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other: see diagram. In the language of astronomy, the two extremes are called "apogee" (far away) and "perigee" (nearby). On Dec. 12th, the Moon becomes full a scant 4 hours after reaching perigee, making it 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier in 2008.I was treated to quite a fantastic view of the almost-full moon this morning as I was driving to work. I leave home at 5:30 in the morning. I did notice it was very large and impressive, and turned an eerie dusky orangish-yellow just before it set.
It's a good thing the sun stays constant in relation to the earth, otherwise people might not believe AlGores' *effect causes the cause* of greenhouse gasses and man made global wrming.
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