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16 Dec 99 - 10:41 PM (#150656) Subject: Big Moon From: Metchosin I was listening to the CBC today when they announced that the Winter Soltice will be marked by the the biggest and brightest moon seen in the past 130 years or so and there won't be another like it for another 130 years. Hope the skies are clear where you are this December 22, so you can appreciate it. |
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16 Dec 99 - 10:54 PM (#150663) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: katlaughing Here's a little essay/explanation on what is happening, according to some forwarded email I got from another 'Catter:
Subject: Last Full Moon of 1999
Millennium Dance The Sun, Moon and Earth create a Y2K, Cosmic Style! by Bob Berman "A better time to celebrate a truly once in a thousand year event arrives some nine days earlier than the official end of the millennium. This year's December 22 winter solstice coincides with a full moon - a combination that happens only every 3 decades or so...But that's not the only celestial oddity for the day. The moon also reaches perigee, its closest point to the Earth. So this solstice, which brings together the year's lowest sun and longest night, comes at the same time as the closest moon - and a full moon to boot. The last time the full moon, lunar perigee, and winter solstice fell on the same day was in 1866. But even then the moon merely reached its closest approach of the month. On this December 22, the moon will be at its nearest point of the year. It's the kind of event that would have driven "primitive" (his quote, not mine) cultures bonkers!! And believe it or not, there's more. The day of Earth's maximal tilt (when the axis is directed most fully away from the sun) will also combine with a very CLOSE sun... which reaches its nearest point to the earth, 12 days later. The confluence of all these forces at "the very least" will brew up huge proxigean tides, also called "closest of the close moon" tides. They will extend a few, but crucial, inches farther then normal, ranging from reaching the boardwalk highs to lows that uncover rarely exposed marine life. If you add a low pressure storm at sea scenario to this day, unusually strong tides could go over the edge and even earthquakes occur more often during strong tide effects. The cosmic culprits responsible for all this drama - the moon and sun occupy opposite ends of the sky on December 21- 22. A full moon will rise just as the sun goes down in its leftmost position of the year along the horizon. This exceptionally plump moon will seem a full 14% wider then than it appeared at apogee, its farthest point from the Earth. Long ago and early on in the experience of using calendars, years end always coincided with the winter solstice. That changed during the switch from the Julian to the more accurate Gregorian calendar, beginning in the sixteenth century. What seems to have been lost was a much more appropriate time, from a celestial point of view, to celebrate the passing of 1,000 years ...on December 22, when the sun, moon and Earth perform a truly, genuinely, once in a millennium dance." * * * * *
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16 Dec 99 - 10:57 PM (#150664) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: Caitrin Whoa...I, for one, will be sure to be sitting in my front yard, bundled up for some dancing in the middle of the winter night. |
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17 Dec 99 - 12:33 AM (#150684) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: paddymac Time to start building that bonfire now, and don't forget to lay in a supply of uisquebagh (sp?) for that inner warmth so appropriate to the event. Slan! |
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17 Dec 99 - 01:47 AM (#150709) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: Metchosin Paddymac, please translate for those of us who don't speak the language, it sounds good. |
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17 Dec 99 - 02:27 AM (#150726) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: alison water of life, metchosin..... aka whiskey slainte alison |
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17 Dec 99 - 03:15 AM (#150734) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: Metchosin Ah!..... I think I've jumped the gun here. |
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17 Dec 99 - 09:53 AM (#150781) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: Áine Uisce beatha -- paddymac, you have a strange way of spelling that phonetically, but what a good idea! Personally, I prefer my uisce beatha in some hot water, with a teaspoon of sugar stirred in, and a lemon slice floating on top with whole cloves stuck in it. Lovely, hot whiskey or 'uisce te'. Now we can party and bay at the moon! -- Áine |
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17 Dec 99 - 10:17 AM (#150793) Subject: RE: BS: Big Moon From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird) If the solstice is taken as the moment of the sun's greatest elevation in the southern sky, and the full moon as the moment of the moon's greatest elongation, then the two moments probably coincide rarely, if ever. On the other hand, if the solstice is assigned always formally to December 22 and the full moon always to the 15th day of the lunar month by the Gregorian Easter cycle, then the two coincide normally every nineteen years, with occasional exceptions due to adjustements occuring in some years divisible by 100. If the solstice is assigned formally to the Universal Time calendar day on which the solstitial moment occurs, and the full moon is assigned formally to the Universal Time calendar day on which the moment of greatest elongation occurs, then the "every thirty years or so" estimate may be right. The Roman consular year began on January 1st, and the Kalends-of-January- or Circumcision-style was sometimes used in the middle ages, as well as the Christmas-style. I suspect it is sometimes not easy to tell which is being used. Even when the English civil calendar (which was Julian until the 18th century) switched to a March 25 style, almanac-makers continued to reckon the year from January 1st. So to imply that the Julian calendar invariably used Christmas-style is misleading. Lunar perigee at full moon is nice, though. T. |