Last night's full moon was the biggest one of the year (by 14%) and also the brightest (by an impressive 30%).
The "Wolf Moon" designation applied to January full moons comes from Native American tradition, according to the Farmers' Almanac. If you missed last night's maximum, it will still be impressive tonight. Those experiencing cloudy weather can watch the movie "Moonstruck" instead.
Link.
The Moon's remarkable luminosity sprung from its proximity--about 50,000 km closer to Earth than other full Moons of the year. This can happen because the Moon's orbit is not a circle but an ellipse: diagram. Last night, the Moon was on the near side of the ellipse--a place astronomers call "perigee"--making it a big, bright perigee Moon.
The "Wolf Moon" designation applied to January full moons comes from Native American tradition, according to the Farmers' Almanac. If you missed last night's maximum, it will still be impressive tonight. Those experiencing cloudy weather can watch the movie "Moonstruck" instead.
Link.
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I was walking around at one in the morning and it looked like it was 5 AM.
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Can we get a teeshirt with that on?
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I did notice it!!! I watered the garden last night and did wonder the moon was so bright, I did not need turn on the garden light at all.
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I wondered why it was waking me up the last couple of nights.
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