Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colours from our sight; red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right — Moody Blues
Weekend skies will feature the biggest full moon of the year. It’ll be hanging up there, beautiful and gorgeous, officially starting this Saturday evening:
(MSNBC) — The moon will officially become full Saturday at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.
The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.
Aww, the moon, a sight to behold. We are lucky to have such a companion. If scientists are right about how it got where it is, moons like ours are probably rare indeed. It also served as a great goal for exploration.
Don’t get me wrong, Mars is also a worthy goal for human spaceflight, but it can never capture the public’s imagination like the moon did during Apollo. That’s not a knock on Mars or the public; it’s a compliment to the moon. Everyone on earth has dreamed of going to the moon and no wonder, it’s been hanging up there, big and beautiful, ruling the night sky since our remote forefathers first stumbled out of a Pliocene forest on two legs. By comparison, from earth, Mars is a tiny spark most people can’t find in the night sky without professional help.
I’ll be checking out the Spring Super Moon this weekend, weather permitting. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it too!
Which is a huge shame too, cause Mars is WAY more interesting. The AZ-sized Olympus Mons is the largest mountain in the solar system – 3 times taller than Everest, Valles Marineris is 2,500 miles long, its 24-hour day, geothermal energy, obvious evidence of an abundance of water in the past…
But you’re right. None of this matters. The public simply doesn’t care about really anything “sciency”.
@ ^ a miasma of incandescent plasma :
The Earth’s natural satellite has wonders of its own a plenty.
Uh, incidentally, DarkSyde, you may want tocjheck out this post :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/05/02/the-supermoon-stuff-again/
on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog.