Biggest Full Moon in almost 20 years -- March 19

NASA Science News for March 16, 2011

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.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...mar_supermoon/

On Mar 16, 6:46*pm, Sam Wormley wrote:

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.

Oh, no! You realize what this is going to lead to, don't you? A series
of posts claiming that the full moon on March 19th will be as large
as... the full moon! Oh... wait.

It is a unique moment to see the Moon at its largest apparent size,
even if that size is only slightly bigger than the usual size.

Mars, when it's closest, is about twice as big as at its farthest...
but the trouble is, though, that that's dust cloud season, so there
isn't much to see in a telescope. And the story of how it would look,
through a telescope at a mere 75x magnification, as large as the full
moon does to the unaided eye, got scrambled by dropping the mention of
the telescope... is well known, and does not need to be repeated.

But I will supply an URL:

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

John Savard

On one day, or other, in freezing, mid March, Andrex de Bog-Roll
capered:
snip snap childish puppy-dog idiocy

The only thing the Moon and Mars have in common are tripods. Sadly
there is no room for a Martian tripod under your vast, fancy dress
hat.

Perhaps you should donate your Napoleon hat to Japan? To protect them
from the radiation, the snow, the next earthquake or the next Tsunami?

Then your entire life would not have been completely and utterly
trivial.

On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:01:14 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote:

Mars, when it's closest, is about twice as big as at its farthest...

No, Mars is more than SEVEN times larger when it's closest than when
it's farthest!

Mar 19, 2011
3h5mUT
JD 2455640.2696
Moon: RA 11h 49m 49s
Dec -4d 20m 44.8s
Distance: 221,567.468 mi barycenter to barycenter
356,587.3 km
The moon will linger at this distance for about half an
hour.
Diameter: 33.511 arcmin.

(VSOP 87 Theory will be slightly discordant with results from JPL or
USNO)

Clear Skies,
Ben

On Mar 17, 12:32*pm, oriel36 wrote:

.... I am keeping the actual texts of the great astronomers front and
center ...

Just curious, give me your list of the greatest 5 or 6 astronomers of
the 20th century...

\Paul A

O course it goes without saying that Madam Blavatsky and L. Ron
Hubbard would top the list.

On Mar 17, 3:42*pm, Ben wrote:
O course it goes without saying that Madam Blavatsky and L. Ron
Hubbard would top the list.

Well... sure!

On Mar 17, 8:02*am, Paul Schlyter wrote:
On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:01:14 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote:
Mars, when it's closest, is about twice as big as at its farthest...

No, Mars is more than SEVEN times larger when it's closest than when
it's farthest!

Oops. I was thinking of closest and farthest oppositions, not how
small it is when near the Sun as seen from Earth.

John Savard

On Mar 17, 12:01*am, Quadibloc wrote:
On Mar 16, 6:46*pm, Sam Wormley wrote:

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.

Oh, no! You realize what this is going to lead to, don't you? A series
of posts claiming that the full moon on March 19th will be as large
as... the full moon! Oh... wait.

It is a unique moment to see the Moon at its largest apparent size,
even if that size is only slightly bigger than the usual size.

Mars, when it's closest, is about twice as big as at its farthest...
but the trouble is, though, that that's dust cloud season, so there
isn't much to see in a telescope. And the story of how it would look,
through a telescope at a mere 75x magnification, as large as the full
moon does to the unaided eye, got scrambled by dropping the mention of
the telescope... is well known, and does not need to be repeated.

But I will supply an URL:

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

One should probably add that the Moon will be traveling at about 2,000
MPH and appear about the size of a frying-pan. ;-)