Dear Silver Listers, This is pretty interesting, so I~m sending it along. Marsha
A pre-millennial event of some note; since there are no unplanned moments in nature, this one could be a reminder of how grand nature's plan can appear to us. It is especially cool for all you with wide-eyed young kids (and a few who just must be interested in staring at the sky). All I can say is it had better not be cloudy in two weeks! This year will be the first full moon to occur this century 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 Dakota 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. Remember, this will happen December 22, 1999.
