Saturday, May 5, 2012

Look for a Spectacular Display of a Full Moon Tonight


If you missed it last year, the super perigee moon is back for an encore performance.
On Saturday, the moon will be up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons of 2012, according to NASA.
That's because it will reach perigee, its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, at 11:34 p.m. ET and become full just a minute later.
Super perigee moons happen about once a year on average, but the moon of March 19, 2011, was nearly 250 miles closer than this week's moon, prompting wild calamitous speculations.
When the moon is on the perigee side of its orbit, it's about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than the apogee side. The only effects expected are slightly higher tides and many beautiful photos.

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