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Astronomy

Friday, May 4, 2012

A ‘Super’ Super Moon Set to Shine Saturday

Full moon will be closest to Earth in nearly 20 years.

Grab your telescopes and cameras and turn your eyes to the skies Saturday night. You won't want to miss another “Super Moon.” Astronomers are saying that this Super Moon will be even more super than usual. “The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. told USA Today. This Super Moon (a phrase coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979) will appear especially large because the moment of perigee—when the moon is closest to the Earth in its monthly rotation—will coincide with the appearance of a perfectly full moon, Smithsonian points out. During last year’s Super Moon on March 19, 2011, for comparison, the perigee and full moon were 50 minutes apart. …

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