December 12th, 2008, the day you will witness the full moon to be the biggest and brightest this 2008. This is because the moon will be closer to earth than usual. It will be 221,559 miles (356,566 kilometers) away from the earth, the closest distance since March 1993.
We call this event perigee - that's the closest distance a body gets to Earth during its elliptical orbit around our planet. When it is at its farthest, the moon is considered to be at apogee. [see image below]
By the way, this year's apogee will be on December 26, when the moon will be 252,650 miles (406,601 kilometers) from Earth.
So watch out for the full moon tomorrow. It'll be 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger -- the best time for skywatchers to enjoy the night! Best time to watch? The closest closest approach around 9:45 p.m. UT.
If you want to know when the next perigee be, here is a moon calculator (Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator) that will display the date, time, and distance of lunar perigees and apogees for a given year.
Watch the video from National Geographic. Also, visit National Geographic for some moon facts and the effects of the perigee on Earth's tides. ( Sorry for the late postings)
ps
To confirm MSdBinsi´s postings, in the Federal state of Bremen, the police force are extra alert on this days because they have observed that people behave queerly and crime is high.
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