Since I missed the blue moon on New Year's Eve 2009 and then chose sleep over standing outside for December's lunar eclipse, I thought I'd make the effort to catch a glimpse of Saturday night's full moon at perigree. That means the moon is full when it's also closest to the Earth making it seem 14% larger than when it's farthest away, or at apogee. Not super rare as it happens once every two to three years, but still a full moon on any day is nice.And how'd I learn all this lunar info? I follow Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and the director for the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, via Twitter. Geeky, perhaps, but he's so good. A. and I attended a recent panel discussion Tyson moderated on string theory and even though they lost me at certain points, I left the event with my brain stimulated and full of questions.
I got a little peak at the moon. There were too many trees in the way to get a good view,but what I could see looked pretty awesome!
ReplyDeleteI'm fascinated by all the space related stuff, so I always pay attention to when things like this happen. But, wouldn't you know it, I was busy sitting in a hospital waiting room with my Mam, then came home and only cared about sleep, so I never even got a picture for my blog or anything!
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed. The moon didn't look any different to me at all.
ReplyDeleteThat discussion sounds really interesting, though.
I enjoy Neil deGrasse Tyson... He does nice work explaining things.
ReplyDelete'cept maybe string theory which is basically incomprehendable anyway..