The Biggest Moon of the Year
December 12, 2008 on 11:55 am | In Solar System |
Those of you with a clear sky are in for a treat tonight. Take a good, hard look at the Moon; it’s the biggest and brightest, tonight, that it gets at any point during your lifetime:

And although the Moon isn’t changing, its distance from us is changing.
Why?
How?
Let’s take a look. The Moon goes around the Earth and the Earth + Moon both go around the Sun. But the Moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle, it’s an ellipse. So sometimes the Moon is closer to the Earth and sometimes it’s farther away.


When the Moon is closest to the Earth, we call that Perigee, and when the Moon is farthest from the Earth, we call that Apogee. And as you know, when something is closer, it looks larger. Does that apply to the Moon too? Let’s take a look:

Hell yes. Well tonight, the Moon is not only at Perigee, at the closest point to the Earth, it’s also a Full Moon!

This only happens when the Moon happens to be at Perigee during a Full Moon; these two things happen together only about once a year. And it’s happening tonight! Make sure you go outside and have a look, because the Moon will look 14% bigger and 30% brighter than it does during most other Full Moons, making this the biggest and brightest Moon of the year!
However, don’t expect the Moon to look like this:

That picture is a work of art, not a real photo. The real Moon looks big tonight, but big is because it’s closer to us for right now, not because it’s coming right for us!
In any case, I hope you appreciate the sight of the Moon tonight, and for an extra special treat, look for it right at Sunset (which coincides with Moonrise tonight), where you can watch it turn from red to orange to yellow to white as it rises!

Have a great weekend!
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Thanks for the info ethan. Hope you are doing well.
Comment by nathan heston — December 12, 2008 #
The next one isn’t until January 30th, 2010! And you’re welcome, Nate. Things are good!
Comment by ethan — December 12, 2008 #
big moon and i love it!!!!!!!!
Comment by savannah — December 12, 2008 #
Unfortunately, it’s completely cloudy here tonight, so I can’t see it. Some people in Indonesia reported some strange tides with tsunami-like behavior which may be due to the spring tides associated with the moon’s perigee.
Why did you say this was the only full moon perigee occurrence in our lifetime? My understanding is that it happens every year or two.
Comment by Brian — December 13, 2008 #
Brian, it happens every 14 months. It will get this bright again, but never brighter. This is the closest and brightest it gets. We get about 12 or 13 full moons a year and a new perigee every 27 days or so. But only once every 14 months do we get a full moon when we have perigee. So take a look tomorrow night; it’s the closest you’ll get until 2010!
Comment by ethan — December 13, 2008 #
moon na
Comment by joshua floeck — April 18, 2009 #
Very coolz very inserting
Comment by Kayla — May 8, 2009 #
i hated it this is a horrible way of showing your point!!!!!!!!!!!1
Comment by mandy — May 11, 2009 #
you smell like a blob of poey sittin on the hot desert floor
Comment by johhana — May 13, 2009 #
ur website stinks i really think u should get rid of it 4eva u stink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by qweinn — May 13, 2009 #
i wrote what happenes on the 21st of march and on the website it wrote some other rubbish.
Comment by Adeeba — May 16, 2009 #
GHGHGGGG
Comment by FFF — July 8, 2009 #
me and anthiny were here at 1:26 PM NOVEMBER 2,2009 HI PPL-SONYA ANTHONY-WHAT ARE YOU DOING
Comment by sonyaliza guzman — November 2, 2009 #
me and anth0ny were here at 1:26 PM NOVEMBER 2,2009 HI PPL-SONYA ANTHONY-WHAT ARE YOU DOING
Comment by sonyaliza guzman — November 2, 2009 #
that is beautiful
Comment by mike — January 9, 2010 #
is that a really picture taken or a painting?
Comment by mike — January 9, 2010 #
this is so cool
Comment by will — January 29, 2010 #
moon is the one of the things of maqlooq of allah
Comment by zahed — August 3, 2010 #