18 Mar 11:
"Mark your calendar," says NASA. "On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and
beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest
in almost 20 years."
"The last
full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993," says Geoff
Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. "I'd say it's worth a
look."
"Full Moons vary in size
because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. It is an ellipse with one side
(perigee) about 50,000 km (30,000 miles) closer to Earth than the other diagram
below). Nearby perigee moons are about
14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of
the Moon's orbit."
"Contrary to some
reports circulating the Internet," says NASA, "perigee Moons do not trigger
natural disasters. The "super moon" of March 1983, for instance, passed without
incident. And an
almost-super
Moon in Dec. 2008 also proved harmless."
I wonder about
that. Anything that can raise the tides to even higher levels is an awesome
force. If the moon can tug on the entire ocean, which is a liquid (obviously),
then why can't it also tug on the lava in volcanoes, which is also liquid? -
Robert
18 Mar 11 - 10pm news in Aus just reported another 6 scale quake in
Japan and Indonesia is evac ing folks as a volcano goes kaboom.
Yesterday evening severe flood and storms expected in central and south
Australia. Moonrise was pretty, big with subtle colours due to the haze
of stubble burning. Makes it hard to imagine Japans misery when
everything here is so normal.
- Laurel
I am not a
trained scientist. I am an interested observer, however I recall an
expression attributed to the French. "Nothing is true until it is
officially denied."
Food for thought FWIW.
- Steven Rowlandson
