Super Moon Tonight!

          Aloha Friend :-)

 

"I'd say it's worth a look."  

Geoff Chester,

US Naval Observatory,

Washington DC

Gem!

 

 

 

 

“Truth is a gem that is found at a great depth;

whilst on the surface of this world,

all things are weighed by the false scale of custom.”

 Lord Byron 

 

                   

"Whoever possesses that chest,

possesses the leverage

to command Davy Jones to do

whatever it is he or she wants."

Captain Jack Sparrow 

Not-So-Super Moon, smiling

 “If, instead of a gem, or even a flower,

we should cast the gift of a loving thought

into the heart of a friend,

that would be giving as the angels give”
 George MacDonald

A “Super Moon”
like we will enjoy tonight,

is a new or full moon

when Mistress Moon rides within 90 percent of her closest approach to Earth.

While this happens 4-6 times a year,

NASA says that tonight's full moon will nearly coincide

with the moon's closet orbit point around the Earth, 

making tonight's performance the biggest, visible 
full moon in North America in two decades!  

Officially, a “Super Moon” is called a "perigee moon.”  But who cares about being official? 

Super moons are
about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter 
than non-perigee moons. . .

When the weather cooperates, that is.

 "Tonight's full Moon (March 19th)
occurs less than one hour away from perigee – a near-perfect coincidence that happens
only every18 years or so;
The last full Moon so big and close to Earth 
occurred in March of 1993."
Said Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC.

Contrary to some alarms circulating  around the Web, perigee Moons do not trigger natural disasters. The "super moon" of March 1983,  passed without incident. And an almost-super Moon in Dec. 2008

also proved harmless. 
(Besides, don't we have enough disasters
right now?)

If you want to try and see the full effect,

(and take your mind off disasters

even closer to our planet)

  then look when the Moon is near the horizon

in the early evening.

 

That is when illusion mixes with reality

to produce an incredible view,

  say the nerds at NASA. 

 

They promise that it will appear 

close enough to touch!

A super perigee Moon is still 356,577 km away. 

But in space, that's kissing distance!

So blow some to the man, or rabbit, or goddess 

that you see up there.

       Your Loony Pal, cloudia