Perigee full moon

[jtb1951]

Friday night's full Moon is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year. It's a "perigee (closest orbital approach) Moon," as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full Moons you'll see later in 2010. Fortunately, it is a clear evening here and, once again, I was able to get some good shots of the moon!

John.

[Donna]

John,

Thank you. Our version is a silver sheen through a very light cloud haze at best. The skies have varying depths of cloud covering between us and that beautiful moon so sometimes it is totally obscured. Don't feel sorry for us though; what we can see when the layer of cloud is very thin is an ethereal disc that shimmers around the edges.

[Strawberry Curls]

Lovely, John. Thanks for these shots. You reminded me to go outside and take a gander at the moon over So. Cal. It really is bright, with a planet (Venus, Mars??) hanging to the left. Really a marvelous sight.

[jtb1951]

Mars, Alice. Good call!

John.

[Pat Floyd]

Beautiful photos, John. The moon here was obscured by clouds and snow last night, but Thursday night's moon was almost as beautiful.

[KarenB]

It was a rather cold evening for moon watching, but I got a bit in while out with the new puppy. I thought it looked really big and bright, but didn't know that it was in perigee. Thanks for furthering my knowledge! and sharing more of your terrific photos!

[jtb1951]

Thank you all for your comments; I'm glad I took the opportunity for some photos when I had the chance, it was snowing just a few hours later:)!

John.

[TygerCub]

Thank you for the lovely pictures. Unfortunately, we've been hit by the snow storm, so can't see a thing. :( Wouldn't be so bad if this area normally got snow, but since we only get snow once in a blue moon (another rare occasion), the Hamptonroads area (VA) is always paralyzed by snow or ice in any amount. :rolleyes:

[Elizabeth Cornwall]

I was walking to school this morning, and BAM! the moon nearly blinded me. It was remarkably lovely, even a few days after it had reached fullness. Werewolf activity John? :D

-Liz

[Millie]

It's lovely here, too, but not nearly as lovely as your photos, John. I'm sure I've said this before, but...tutorial????

[jtb1951]

with the bright moon and dusting of snow.

Moonlight on fresh snow is almost beauty beyond words!
John.

[jtb1951]

Werewolf activity John?

There were faint howls echoing in the night air:). I had to stifle my own atavistic tendencies:p!

John.

P.S. Werewolf? There wolf!!

[jtb1951]

I'm sure I've said this before, but...tutorial????

I use an Olympus digital SLR, and for these moon photos I set my longest telephoto to maximum (600mm), the ISO to 400 (also took some at ISO 100), used lots of different exposure times (these were at 1/2500 sec.), and was too lazy to set up my tripod so I took these handheld bracing the camera and myself against our front porch post, held my breath, and snapped away:)

The photos had enough resolution that I could enlarge them enough to post and show some detail. Glad you enjoyed them, Millie!

John.

[tangential1]

I was walking to school this morning, and BAM! the moon nearly blinded me. It was remarkably lovely, even a few days after it had reached fullness. Werewolf activity John? :D

-Liz

Wow...an interesting werewolf thought... Werewolf movies and such always have the person in wolf form only at night during the full moon...but technically you can see the moon during the day given the time of year and your geographical location. So shouldn't there technically be werewolves running around during the day occasionally as well?

Bah...just killed my own theory. Apparently fullmoon rise time is always around sunset?:rolleyes:

[jtb1951]

Bah...just killed my own theory. Apparently fullmoon rise time is always around sunset?

Actually, Erin, there is technically an exact time for each full moon, so depending where on earth one lives it could occur anytime during the day or night:)! And if the earth happens to be in the correct spot between the sun and the moon your full moon turns into a total lunar eclipse (again, if you are in the right spot!)

John.

[tangential1]

Actually, Erin, there is technically an exact time for each full moon, so depending where on earth one lives it could occur anytime during the day or night:)! And if the earth happens to be in the correct spot between the sun and the moon your full moon turns into a total lunar eclipse (again, if you are in the right spot!)

John.

Sweet! So my theory holds :cool:

I wonder where one needs to live to see werewolves running around during the day. Is there a chart or something, do you know?

[jtb1951]

Is there a chart or something, do you know?

Yep, it's called the wherewolves chart:)!

John.

[Donna]

Ah nuts... all we have around here are coyotes. They sang loudly and "melodiously(?)" last night for about a half an hour... They aren't distant "cousins" are they? Werewolves are a separate and distinct species aren't they? In any case the coyotes "sang" and the neighborhood (hounds mostly, though some husky-like breeds entered: either "bays" or "howls" depending on the breed) woke up to join in... Until all the "be quiet (or some such words were heard...) dog" echoed throughout the land... John, tell me coyotes aren't affected by perigee (or any) moons... right? Whatever the case Big Bear was quite bright and quite loud during certain parts of last night... :rolleyes::eek::cool:
PS ...and there's still lots and lots of snow...