http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/nasa.moon/index.html?hpt=C2
It will be the largest full moon in some 20 years. If it looks closer—that’s because it is. 😉
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/nasa.moon/index.html?hpt=C2
It will be the largest full moon in some 20 years. If it looks closer—that’s because it is. 😉
Ahhh… looking for a huge full moon in Saskatoon. Too bad it wasn’t June 🙂
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” The universe is shrinking (not!) and 2012 is right around the corner.
Maybe tonight will be a clear night, since the past few nights have been RAIN or at least clouds.
Oh! I’ll have to remember to, you know, step outside and away from the computer at some point.
No hold it, I could take the laptop out with me. (grin)
Sadly at least one large circulation newspaper (and not the bottom tier either) in the UK has blamed the Japan earthquake on this moon.
sigh.
There’s a reason they call it LUNACY. We have a bumper crop of whack-a-doodles out, howling at a perfectly lovely astronomical phenomenon and reducing it to an excuse for everything bad or peculiar. Double sigh.
Off-Topic:
In about a month, I will have a small audio role, as one of many in a chorus, for the Starship Excelsior podcast, Episode 3.06. I don’t want to guve anything away, but it should be a neat episode.
http://www.starshipexcelsior.com/
That was very off topic, BSC! Congrats though.
Oh, snap. I never sleep well when there is a bright moon out. Not that I should be able to tell with the light from the Firestone Tire place just outside my bedroom window. Somehow my body knows though. I should put a few books by my bedside in preparation for the long night.
Werewolves dancing in the moonlight tonight 🙂
82Eridani’s post reminding me of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”… I got to see the moon last night, the clouds were kind enough to part and allow the full moon’s light to shine down on the farm.
As for the earthquake, I would like to point out that the Pacific Plate has slipped in 3 of its 4 corners in the past couple of years. Chile, New Zealand, Japan….the 4th corner is under tremendous stress and when it goes, I am hopeful that the damage will be minimal, but I know better from my oceanographic studies that it will hardly be in the 2.0 – 3.0 range. I’m thinking that the Alaska earthquake of 1964 with its 8.4 tremors will pale in comparison.
BTW, the gravitational pull of the moon CAN cause the continents to move, as well, albeit nowhere near as much as the oceans. Say maybe a centimeter or so, although I do not know for sure. The action of the sun’s gravitational pull on one side and the moon’s on the other cause the high tides in the oceans, but because the continents are of much denser material, they don’t move that much. I’d have to discount the news article unless they could cite some very credible and reliable sources for that statement.
Even if the moon were in any part responsible for the earthquake, what should we do about it? Shall we go back in time three weeks and shoot it down? Pass a UN resolution demanding it move its orbit out a few kilometers? Run around in circles screaming the sky is falling?
Quote: “As for the earthquake, I would like to point out that the Pacific Plate has slipped in 3 of its 4 corners in the past couple of years. Chile, New Zealand, Japan….the 4th corner is under tremendous stress”
Uhmm, so just where is that fourth corner? I’m guessing California, or Washington, or British Columbia or Alaska? Gotta be somewhere on the north-eastern corner.
The moon is gorgeous tonight! Totally clear here in Toronto. I think I’ll try for a picture…
The moon IS incredible tonight–almost otherwordly from where I’m sitting. Besides Earth, it’s my favorite planet!
We got to see it—usually the winter sky is so clouded in Spokane a clear viewing night is an exception! Right in our living room window!
I missed it here in N. Cal. But hoping to see tonight. Star sign Cancer, must see moon!
We got to see it last night, between rain squalls. It was most peculiar — the sky was clear overhead, where the moon was, but we were getting spits of rain blowing down from the mountain. A friend took several pictures of it, and had me aim his laser pointer up at it, just for funsies.
We have had a run of clear nights, so have been able to watch the moon waxing full. We also have had a hoot owl move into the area who inspires Breezy (dog) to start responding around 3:00 A.M. Woodland living is never boring! 😉
The northeast corner of the Pacific plate ruptured in Anchorage in 1964. South and East the boundaries are mid-ocean.
As nearly as I can tell, treating Wiki as gospel – lol – the Chilean quake was actually on the Nazca and/or Antarctic plate boundary with the South American. The Cascadia fault on the boundary of the Juan de Fuca and North American plates along the Washington and Oregon Coasts is similarly situated to the Nazca plate, as it is sandwiched between the Pacific and the continetal plates, several hundred years overdue, and the number 2 earthquake hazard in the U.S. as measured by probability of occurance in the near term and magnitude of losses after the Seattle fault which is equally overdue and much shallower. The only potential geoligical catastrophe ranked higher than those faults in North America is the Yellowstone caldera.