Courtesy - The Nation By Carol AloysiusAstronomers and astrologers alike eagerly scanned the night skies yesterday, to gaze their full on a very rare and beautiful sight: A full Moon of rare size and beauty which rose in the Eastern skies at sunset.
“It’s a super ‘perigee Moon’ – the biggest in 18 years. 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, obviously excited by the rare phenomenon that unfolded in the skies.
Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee) – see the diagram. Nearby perigee Moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser Moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit.
“The full Moon of March 19 occurred less than one hour away from perigee – a near-perfect coincidence that happens once in only 18 years or so,” added Chester.
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