Subject: Bright Moon's a comin!
This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter
solstice,Dec. 22, commonly called the first day of winter, since
1866. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction
with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to
Earth). The moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the
point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). Since
the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of
the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7%
stronger making it brighter.
Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the
year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming.
If the weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you
live, it is believed that even cars headlights will be superfluous.
On December 21st 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of
this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory
ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory.
In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full moon, much
more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years!
Our ancestors 133 years ago saw this. Our descendants 100
or so years from now will see this again.
I hope someone else might find this interesting! Remember
this will happen December 22, 1999.
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