You're right also about the moon's perigee with the earth. All this will
produce a larger, brighter moon. I just wanted to clarify that the solstice
will have nothing to do with it as it is just the moment when the north pole
of the earth's axis tilts furthest away from the sun.
Andy Krumpe
P19 "Great Wight"
Seacoast of New Hampshire
-----Original Message-----
From: hlg@pacbell.net [SMTP:hlg@pacbell.net]
Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 11:57 AM
To: wwpotter@tscnet.com
Subject: Super Bright Full Moon December 22
On Dec. 22, 1999, watch for a super bright full moon!
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.