Tonight’s Full Moon is exceptional! It is a Moon of rare size and beauty… they call it “Super Moon” or “perigee moon”and it’s the biggest in almost 20 years! This Super Full Moon will appear in full fatness becauseit will be quite close to Earth. EH? Closer than in other days? Yes! NASA explain this phenomenon with the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. And Super Full Moons are 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other Moons. You didn’t know it, did you?
“Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee): diagram. Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit.”
“The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. “The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee–a near-perfect coincidence that happens only 18 years or so,” explains Chester and adds “I’d say it’s worth a look”. I’d say, I will certainly take a long look!
The best time to look is when the moon is near the horizon, preferably when it rises over trees landscape.
Superstitions about the Perigee Moon
Internet is full with catastrophe ‘predictions’, natural disasters and lah-blah-blahs. Chester dismisses the claims that Perigee Moons trigger natural disasters, although he says that these moons with their powerful lunar gravity bring with them extra-high water tides, however not higher than a few centimeters than the usual.
