Friday, October 26, 2007

The Moon

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Last night there was a special full moon. It will also look really fine tonight.


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Moving in its elliptical orbit the furthest it gets away (apogee) is about 405,696 kilometers. But right now it is at its perigee (closest point) of around 384,600 kilometers. This means that right now the moon appears 14% bigger than normal and about 1/3 brighter than on average.


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So last night at 2:00 a.m. me and the dog took our Meade telescope outside and looked at the full moon. It was glorious.


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I took these pictures this morning at sunrise without attaching the camera to the telescope, just using the standard lens of my trusty little Sony digital camera.


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My friend Ed Anderson sent me this picture that he took outside his house in Northern California.
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