Lately, in Corinna...
December 21, 1999

Super-bright full moon on December 22

This event isn't just in Corinna, but I couldn't resist putting it on the site.

I hope the skies are clear on Wednesday night. The moon will be unusually bright. December 22 is the night of the full moon and the winter solstice, the first day of winter. The last time these events came on the same day was 133 years ago. It won't happen again for another 100 years or so. The moon will be near the closest point to earth in its orbit so it will look larger than usual. The earth will be near the closest point to the sun for the year so more light will strike the moon making it brighter than usual.


This picture is from a collection of astronomy 
pictures at a web site called "Discover the 
Cosmos – Astronomy Picture of the 
Day". The archive of the site is at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

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