Closest Full Moon

[Liz]

Just wondering ..... Northern Hemisphere forums are talking about the Full Moon this weekend, as the closest Moon for 15 years, and that it wont happen again for another for another 8 years.
Perigee is on 13/12 at 356,567 km.
Cant seem to find much data backing that up in Southern Hemisphere.
Because of the tilt of the Earth, does this not apply to us?

[glenc]

The distance to the moon from here at 2:37 am DST on 13/12 is 354,098 km.

[Ian Robinson]

King Tides ! watch out if you get torrential rain at about at high tide !!!! near morning peak hour too .... not good.

The loonies will be out in force howling at the moon on the weekend too .....

Mozzies like you wont believe in 2 or 3 weeks time - just in time for those Xmas parties , bbqs and NYE parties and bbqs .... stock up on RID and tropical strength Aerogard fellows - going to need it if you live near salt marshes . I feel sorry for all those dad's who'll be struggling to assemble trampelines, swing sets, slippery dips, bikes and trikes over night on Xmas Eve who'll as well as discovering none of the holes matchup , that bolts and screws and other key parts are non-existant , have insyphorable instructions and assembly diagrams that bear not the least resemblance to what you bought and thought you'd be assembling for the kiddies.... I am so glad I no longer have that to worry about now - who'll be eaten alive by very hungry mozzies as well.

[Liz]

Thanks Glen and Ian .... Well, it will be a biggest and brightest Full Moon of the year this Saturday night, and will be a beautiful sight indeed. Not sure if its the closest for years ... whatever ... it will be a biggie, along with the tides and the loonies. Click, click with the camera :D

[glenc]

Some numbers are here: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html
Also: http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52812/closest-and-largest-full-moon-since-march-93

[Liz]

Thats is great Perigee/Apogee Calculater, Glen ..... and according to it, this is our closest Moon since 2000, and wont be as close until 2016.

[erick]

Lovely naked eye sight from Sydney yesterday evening. Rain/cloud cleared in time. Shine on! (But go away by next weekend so i can get some gazing in for the first half of the evening!)

[vindictive666]

i had read of spaceweather.com

another on jan 10th 2009 ?

http://spaceweather.com/

regards john

ps not sure on how long the link stays valid it changes daily

regards john

[darrellx]

Hi All


I am just hoping for some clarification on the timings of Full and New moons. It sort of fits in with the Perigee/Apogee theme here.

I thought that the actual times these events occurred would be fairly close from one month to the next - give or take an hour or so.

I have gone online to get the dates for the Full and New moons for the first 6 months next year. The website I went to included the actual time the event occurs in UT. http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html Thanks Glen.

Now here is my confusion.

New Moons
26 Jan at 7:56UT
25 Feb at 1:37UT
26 Mar at 16:08UT
25 Apr at 3:24UT

Full Moons
11 Jan at 3:28UT
9 Feb at 14:50UT
11 Mar at 2:38

I simply cannot accept this much variation. Is the website wrong, or have I totally missed the mark? Shouldn't the times be much closer than this.

Thanks
Darrell

[glenc]

The lunar month varies a fair bit.
http://www.obliquity.com/astro/lunarmonth.pdf

A synodic month (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synodic_month) is 29.53 days (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds) and is measured from New Moon to New Moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_month