The Perigee Moon on Jan 10

I was looking forward last night to seeing the perigee moon in all its splendour but no such luck. It was a dark cloudy night and the moon was pale and intermittently obscured by the dark clouds floating by making it less than its perfect round shape.

Due to the dark cloudy sky, sighting the moon rise was not possible and when it was sighted, it was already overhead. Below are the shots I managed to take.












Jonathan Sabin of Florida noticed how dark the shadows were, so he took a picture of his own shadow instead.



Elsewhere around the world, the moon was beautiful. Check these out from Spaceweather.com.

The full Moon rising above the snow covered California Sierra Nevada Mountains



From Colorado



From Chennai, India, with a clear blue sky and a lake nearby



From Algeria



From the Alps, France - Note the plane crossing in front of the Moon



This one is beautiful taken in Southern Germany on a very cold wintry yesterday morning of -17 °C/+1.4 °F



Ice-skating in Netherlands with the perigee moon above



This is from Hungary



And this is one of two submissions from Malaysia, from Martin Carvalho of Malacca. Martin had this to say:

It was a quaint coincidence that the Full Moon was up during the launching of the ceremony to light up traditional Chinese lanterns along Malacca's Jonker Street, the city's 18th Century Dutch era quarter. The moon in the cloudless sky seem to blend well the red Chinese lanterns..



For more pictures, visit spaceweather.com

Tonight, Biggest Full Moon of the Year

If you are someone who likes to watch the sky and gaze at the stars and the moon, you might be interested to know that the moon this weekend will be the biggest full moon of the year. It is what is known as a "perigee Moon".

What's a perigee moon? Science-Nasa explains it well: The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be this weekend, in fact, tonight, Jan 10.

Perigee full moons come along once or twice a year. 2008 ended with one in Dec (biggest full moon in 2008) and now 2009 is beginning with another. So, grab your camera and snap the biggest moon of the year tonight wherever you may be.

The picture below from Science.NASA, was taken in Dec 2008 by photographer Eric Ingmundson of Sparta, Wisconsin. The perigee moon was over a neighbour's farm. Look how big the moon was. Perigee moons can be 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons we see other times of the year.


Here is a picture from Spaceweather.com, taken last night on the Kolyskia peninsula in Russia, a blast of moonlight pierced the clouds and produced a 22deg ice halo. Ice halos are formed when tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere refract and reflect light.


Take some pictures of the perigee moon tonight and share the beauty on your blog. Better yet, drop me a comment here so that I can put together a collection and share the beauty of the perigee moon from around the world. How's that, eh? Your site will be linked back.