Skies have cleared just in time for the weekend and just in time for us to enjoy a rare sight: a full moon at it's closest point in orbit to the earth. It'll be over 221,500 miles away, some 17,400 miles closer than average. The reason this is happening is that the oval-shaped monthly orbit the moon makes around the earth means that it reaches a point where it is closest to the earth and a point where it is farthest from the earth. The point where the moon is closest is called the perigee. The point where the moon is farthest away is called the apogee. The moon reaches both of these points once a month, so that's no big news. The great thing about tonight is that we haven't seen a full moon at the same time it's been at perigee since 1993...and this won't happen again until November of 2016.
Interestingly enough, there's also a meteor shower that is in progress that will peak tomorrow night. It's the Geminid meteor shower. With the moon brighter than usual you'll be hard pressed to see many meteors, but you may see some - you've got to get away from city lights and look away from the moonlight. Enjoy these two astronomical events, and send me any questions you have. Clouds will roll back into the area by Sunday afternoon and next week could be mostly cloudy in general, so enjoy the clear skies while we have them....just bundle up!
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