Friday, December 12, 2008

Bright Full Moon

Look up and be amazed at the wonder of our heavens. "The night sky is set to be illuminated by the biggest and brightest full moon for the past 15 years. The next encounter with a moon this close and full will not be until November 2016."

Lucy Cockcroft informs us that, "Each month the Moon orbits the Earth in an oval-shaped path, and on December 12 it will move past it around 28,000km closer than average.

The unusual feature is that this will coincide with a full moon, which will make it appear 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than most full moons this year, on Friday night....Another astronomical treat that could be seen over the weekend is the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the year's best displays of shooting stars. Up to 100 meteors an hour can fly across the sky. The meteors, which are easy to spot with the naked eye, appear to shoot out from the constellation Gemini, hence their name, but they can be seen all over the sky.

The best chance of seeing them is to look away from the Moon." Source

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