Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight

space.com – Fri Jan 29, 7:45 am ET
Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.


This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.


But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here's how the moon works:


The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.


So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.


Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.


As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.


Full moon craziness


Many people think full moons cause strange behavior among animals and even humans. In fact several studies over the years have tried to tie lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, and more. Connections have been inclusive or nonexistent.


The moon does have some odd effects on our planet, and there are oodles of other amazing moon facts and misconceptions:

A full moon at perigee also brings higher ocean tides. This tug of the moon on Earth also creates tides in the planet's crust, not just in the oceans.
Beaches are more polluted during full moon, owing to the higher tides.
In reality, there's no such thing as a full moon. The full moon occurs when the sun, Earth and the moon are all lined up, almost. If they're perfectly aligned, Earth casts a shadow on the moon and there's a total lunar eclipse. So during what we call a full moon, the moon's face is actually slightly less than 100 percent illuminated.
The moon is moving away as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 cm) a year.

The moon illusion


Finally, be sure to get out and see the full moon as it rises, right around sunset. Along the horizon, the moon tends to seem even bigger. This is just an illusion.


You can prove to yourself that this is an illusion. Taking a small object such as a pencil eraser, hold it at arm's length, and compare its size to that of the moon just as it rises. Then repeat the experiment later in the night and you'll see that the moon compares the same in both cases. Alternately, snap two photos of the moon, with a digital camera or your cell phone, when the moon is near the horizon and later when it's higher in the sky. Pull both photos up on your computer screen and make a side-by-side comparison.


Astronomers and psychologists agree the moon illusion is just that, but they don't agree on how to explain it.

and it is supposed to be clear tonight. at least out east

Thanks for this KK ... I hope I can see it here and capture a few shots

>This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.<





According to my grandfather I was born during the mad elk moon. I love that old traditional stuff.

BMG wrote:

>This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.<





According to my grandfather I was born during the mad elk moon. I love that old traditional stuff.

have you passed it down to your children?

it's time !!!


I just looked....first it was big and pink as the sun went past the mountain range....

now it is up mid high and so, so, so big and bright

c/thru wrote:

it's time !!!


I just looked....first it was big and pink as the sun went past the mountain range....

now it is up mid high and so, so, so big and bright

it's almost like day light here. it's so bright the sky looks solid black blue. it's even blocking out aoo the stars. The only one you can see right now is venus.

They're calling for a chance of snow tonight, so total cloud cover here.

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

That "chance of snow" I mentioned yesterday turned into half a foot or so today. My younger son did one of those "polar bear plunges" in the Chesapeake Bay this afternoon, and the temp was a balmy 14 degrees.

Giada wrote:

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

remember that time alice flashes us

KK wrote:

Giada wrote:

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

remember that time alice flashes us

Thankfully, no.

As a child, I had to pick up the apples from our tree in the neighbor's yard, even tho they never picked up their apples that fell in our yard. The woman was an obnoxious, fat Jewish woman (no disrespect to anyone here that's Jewish) but she hated us because we were German. Anyway, one day I was picking up the apples and she came out in her housecoat and bent over right in front of me - she wasn't wearing any underwear! THAT was the biggest moon I've ever seen, and hairy, too.

Giada wrote:

KK wrote:

Giada wrote:

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

remember that time alice flashes us

Thankfully, no.

As a child, I had to pick up the apples from our tree in the neighbor's yard, even tho they never picked up their apples that fell in our yard. The woman was an obnoxious, fat Jewish woman (no disrespect to anyone here that's Jewish) but she hated us because we were German. Anyway, one day I was picking up the apples and she came out in her housecoat and bent over right in front of me - she wasn't wearing any underwear! THAT was the biggest moon I've ever seen, and hairy, too.

EEEEWWWWWWW !!!

The things you see when you dont have a slingshot and a pebble.

Giada wrote:

KK wrote:

Giada wrote:

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

remember that time alice flashes us

Thankfully, no.

As a child, I had to pick up the apples from our tree in the neighbor's yard, even tho they never picked up their apples that fell in our yard. The woman was an obnoxious, fat Jewish woman (no disrespect to anyone here that's Jewish) but she hated us because we were German. Anyway, one day I was picking up the apples and she came out in her housecoat and bent over right in front of me - she wasn't wearing any underwear! THAT was the biggest moon I've ever seen, and hairy, too.

did it have craters ?

Giada wrote:

KK wrote:

Giada wrote:

KK wrote:

Giada wrote:

It was very bright and beautiful, but not the biggest moon I've ever seen - I'm talkin the actual celestial one, getcher minds outta the gutter.

remember that time alice flashes us

Thankfully, no.

As a child, I had to pick up the apples from our tree in the neighbor's yard, even tho they never picked up their apples that fell in our yard. The woman was an obnoxious, fat Jewish woman (no disrespect to anyone here that's Jewish) but she hated us because we were German. Anyway, one day I was picking up the apples and she came out in her housecoat and bent over right in front of me - she wasn't wearing any underwear! THAT was the biggest moon I've ever seen, and hairy, too.

I can't remember. I just know I ran home and told my mother. It was truly disgusting.
did it have craters ?

I got a crotch shot once from a friends mother who lived across the street. it was ealry in the morning and she came down the stairs in a bathrobe that kind of opened a bit.

Cloudy here, guess I'll have to wait till next year.

Joebert wrote:

Cloudy here, guess I'll have to wait till next year.

by then the moon will be an inc and a half further away from the earth

I always liked this wiki pic, which shows the approximate sizes and distance from the Earth to the Moon. The yellow line plots the almost 9 second time that it takes for light, or a TV signal, from the Earth, to reach the Moon.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

wow, only 9 seconds

Aaa that's a fast 9 seconds.

Joebert wrote:

Aaa that's a fast 9 seconds.

it must be to scale

It almost looks vulgar now that I take a second look at it. Maybe I should use it for a signature...

java wrote:

It almost looks vulgar now that I take a second look at it. Maybe I should use it for a signature...

that's what i thought at first

KK wrote:

java wrote:

It almost looks vulgar now that I take a second look at it. Maybe I should use it for a signature...

that's what i thought at first

There seems to be a trend...