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Subject: Re: The Moon?
From: Dr. Geoffrey Kolbe (geof@XXX.XXX)
Date: Mon Dec 20 1999 - 02:24:30 EST
This was sent to me, I thought it worth repeating to the list.
The moon will be full the 22th of this month.
This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice,
Dec. 22, commonly called the first day of winter. 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 it's 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 car headlights
will be superfluous.
On December 21st, 1866 the Dakota 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.
Have a good Christmas!
Geoffrey Kolbe.
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