From: Geoff Ruth (geoffreyruth@usa.net)
Date: Mon Dec 13 1999 - 10:15:20 PST
Message-ID: <19991213181520.5583.qmail@nwcst312.netaddress.usa.net> Date: 13 Dec 99 10:15:20 PST From: Geoff Ruth <geoffreyruth@usa.net> Subject: Re: [pinhole full moon & winter solstice]
I've been thinking more about why the moon will be so bright this solstice,
but I don't understand this e-mail well enough to be satisfied. Can someone
explain the different planetary motions that are conspiring to make the moon
so bright?
> This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice,
> Dec. 22, commonly called the first day of winter. Since a full moon on
> the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point
> in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth) The moon will appear about
> 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit
> that is farthest from the Earth) since the Earth is also several million
> miles closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer,
> sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter.
> Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the
> moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there
> is a snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights
> will be superfluous. On December 21st. 1866 the Lakota Sioux took
> advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating
> retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory.
> In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full moon, much more than the
> usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors 133
> years ago saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see
> this again. I hope someone else might find this interesting! Remember
> this will happen December 22, 1999.....
>
>
> Aloha from Hawaii Gail Peiterson
>
>
>
>
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