Astro-Image of the Day: Moon at its biggest of the year for 2009 on Saturday

[mckitterick]

Remember last month's post about the Moon being at perigee, its closest to the Earth? Well, it's about to happen again this month: Two perigee full Moons in two months! Wow!

Click the image to see the story.

A perigee Moon appears 14% wider and 30% brighter than a normal full Moon, so if it's been seeming really big and bright while waxing over the last week, that's because it has been growing in size from our perspective. (No, Virginia, it doesn't actually gain mass or volume. It's just closer, and closer looks bigger.) And you know that cool thing where the Moon looks huge as it rises from objects along the horizon? Well, it'll appear even more bigger-er!

Click the image to see the story.

Enjoy! If it's clear, I'll try to take some new astrophotos through my 'scope.

Chris

Comments

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I'll have to be sure to get outside and check it out if we have clear skies. We did last month, and it was spectacular. I'm always bemused that I never, ever, ever get tired of looking at a full moon.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Did you get a chance to see it over the past few days? It's been amazingly bright and huge.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Here and there. We had overcast skies over the weekend, so we could see the moon, but it was fuzzed a bit because of the clouds. The last couple of nights have been nice, watching it wane.