John O. Andersen

A friend forwarded this.


Living in Portland with our rainy weather, we'll be lucky to see the moon
that night, but others of you may have the chance. Be sure not to miss it.

John



>>Something to look forward to on December 22, 1999.

This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec.
22nd, commonly called the first day of
winter. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurs in conjunction with
a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the
moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's
elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth).

Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time
of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7%
stronger making it brighter.

Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the
moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there is a
snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be
superfluous.

On December 21st. 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination
of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in
the Wyoming Territory.

::::::::In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full moon, much more
than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years!<<

[email protected]

We saw a beautiful moonrise on Monday December 20th, but it clouded up
for the rest of the week. It did look a bit larger than usual, somewhat
like a harvest moon. We also watched Apollo 13 that night.
Mary Ellen
Breastfeeding is Y2K Compliant

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.