- Photo by: Jill Friedman (Aug. 2008) St. Nicholas Park
Friday night, sky-watchers around the world saw the biggest and brightest full moon of 2008. Although a full moon happens every month, the one on Friday appeared about 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than the other full moons seen so far this year.
That’s because our cosmic neighbor was much closer than usual. The moon was at its closest perigee—the nearest it gets to Earth during its egg-shaped orbit around our planet.
At its farthest from Earth, the moon is said to be at apogee.
Perigee and apogee each happen generally once a month, but the moon’s wobbly orbit means that its exact distance at each of those events varies over the year.
The moon’s phase can also be different during each apogee and perigee.
“Typically we don’t have the full moon phase and perigee coinciding at the same time, so that makes this event particularly special,” said Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.
What’s more, Friday’s event was the closest lunar perigee since 1993, at 221,560 miles (356,566 kilometers) from Earth.
Adapted from National Geographic
Posted on December 15, 2008 by D. Bell