Quantum Spirit: Friday's Moon Largest, Brightest of 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Friday's Moon Largest, Brightest of 2008

NASA reports that tomorrow night’s full moon is the largest and brightest of the entire year. It’s what is known as a “perigee” moon, which means it’s closer, brighter, and 14% larger than most full moons.

Here’s information from NASA’s press release:

It's no illusion. Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others and this Friday's is a whopper. Why? The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other: diagram. In the language of astronomy, the two extremes are called "apogee" (far away) and "perigee" (nearby). On Dec. 12th, the Moon becomes full a scant 4 hours after reaching perigee, making it 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier in 2008.

A perigee Moon brings with it extra-high "perigean tides," but this is nothing to worry about, according to NOAA. In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters (six inches)--not exactly a great flood.

Okay, the Moon is 14% bigger, but can you actually tell the difference? It's tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon looks much like any other.

The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. On Friday, why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you can almost reach out and touch it.

In 2004, Greek amateur astronomer Anthony Ayiomamitis photographed an apogee Moon and a perigee Moon, and set the images side by side to show the difference.

Click here for the complete NASA article.

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Quotations to Ponder

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'Thank you,' that would suffice."

~ Meister Eckhart, 14th-century mystic

"Death is not extinguishing the light ~ it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

~ Rabindranath Tagore

"There shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars."

~ Gospel of Luke, 21:25

"The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
~ Gospel of John, 3:8

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

~ Teilhard de Chardin

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

~ Albert Einstein

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

~ William James

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens. But often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."

~ Helen Keller

"There are only two ways to live your life ~ as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle."

~ Albert Einstein

"He who's not busy being born

Is busy dying."

~ Bob Dylan

"A mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

~ John Milton

17th-century English poet

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."

~ The Dalai Lama

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
~ Albert Einstein

Attributions

I Ching commentaries on my blog are from the classic The I Ching or Book of Changes, translated by Richard Wilhelm with a Forward by Carl Jung, Princeton University Press, 1950. By the way, when selecting entries for my blog, I don't "throw" anything to discover the hexagram - I simply open the book at random and see what's there.

Selections from the Tao Te Ching are from Stephen Mitchell's translation.

Aesop's fables on my blogs are from Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Biblical selections are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version of both the Old and New Testament.