Full moon April 2nd

TheMercenary • Apr 2, 2007 9:09 am
http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/51045/april-full-moon-farthest-smallest-in-2007

Monday, April 2.

The April full moon comes today at 5:15 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. This is the most distant and smallest full moon of this year.

The moon’s distance from Earth ranges from about 350,000 to 400,000 kilometers. In other words, at its most distant – before dawn tomorrow U.S. time – the moon will be about 50,000 kilometers – about 30,000 miles – farther away than at its closest.

Everyone around the world will see a full-looking moon throughout the night tonight. But we won’t all see the moon at the instant that it’s full. In the US, for instance, the moon will be just past full as it rises in the east at dusk. Tonight’s moon is the first full moon since the March equinox. The first full moon of a northern hemisphere spring is commonly called the Paschal Full Moon. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring. That’s why Easter will come this Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, tonight’s moon will be the full moon that comes the closest to their autumnal equinox. For people in the southern hemisphere, tonight is their full Harvest Moon. All of us on Earth will see a bright star near the moon tonight. That star is Spica in the constellation Virgo.
Shawnee123 • Apr 2, 2007 9:41 am
Awooooooooooooooooooooooo!
elSicomoro • Apr 2, 2007 9:51 am
I got a full moon for ya right here!
Undertoad • Apr 2, 2007 9:52 am
For me it means a sucky day at Nethack.
lumberjim • Apr 2, 2007 10:05 am
does this mean there will be a blue moon on the 30th?
elSicomoro • Apr 2, 2007 10:08 am
No...next one is May 31st.
SteveDallas • Apr 2, 2007 10:38 am
Undertoad;329581 wrote:
For me it means a sucky day at Nethack.


:lol2:
lumberjim • Apr 2, 2007 10:39 am

29.5306-day period of the moon's phases:


oh....i thought there were 28 days in the moon's cycle.
Shawnee123 • Apr 2, 2007 11:15 am
lumberjim;329595 wrote:
oh....i thought there were 28 days in the moon's cycle.


That's MY cycle.
BigV • Apr 2, 2007 12:26 pm
You're a moonie?
BigV • Apr 2, 2007 12:28 pm
Less comically, I was awakened by the dazzling glare of the full moon last night. I rolled over toward the window. The brightness of the moon, shining down unobstructed through the blinds was like a flashlight in my eyes. Brilliant!
Sheldonrs • Apr 2, 2007 12:30 pm
sycamore;329580 wrote:
I got a full moon for ya right here!


And I bet I could drive a Saturn through Uranus. lol!!!
piercehawkeye45 • Apr 2, 2007 12:47 pm
It's going to be cloudy here so I will miss it.

City lights usually block out the night sky anyways, one big downside of living in the city.
xoxoxoBruce • Apr 2, 2007 8:56 pm
lumberjim;329595 wrote:
oh....i thought there were 28 days in the moon's cycle.
Wiki wrote:
The phases of full moon and new moon are examples of syzygies, which occur when the Earth, Moon and Sun lie (approximately) in a straight line. The time between two full moons (or between successive occurrences of the same phase) is about [COLOR="RoyalBlue"]29.53 [/COLOR]days (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes) on average. This synodic month is longer than the time it takes the Moon to make one orbit about the Earth with respect to the fixed stars (the sidereal month), which is about [COLOR="royalblue"]27.32 [/COLOR]days. This difference is caused by the fact that the Earth-Moon system is orbiting about the Sun at the same time the Moon is orbiting about the Earth. The actual time between two syzygies is variable because the orbit of the Moon is elliptic and subject to various periodic perturbations, which change the velocity of the Moon.
Looks like it's as variable as my exs.
Cloud • Apr 2, 2007 9:07 pm
Time to dance naked in the moonlight!