WAILUA — If the full moon on Wednesday night appeared to be a little closer than normal to Earth, you got it right. But tonight it will get even closer. The moon will rise at 8:37 p.m., and will be
WAILUA — If the full moon on Wednesday night appeared to be a little closer than normal to Earth, you got it right.
But tonight it will get even closer.
The moon will rise at 8:37 p.m., and will be at it’s perigee, meaning the moon will be at its closest distance from the Earth this month.
During the perigee, the moon’s gravitational pull can increase tides and throw a little more than a whiplash on the weather.
The opposite of the perigee is the apogee, when the moon is at the furthest distance from the Earth, and its gravitational effects on the tides and the weather are milder.
On March 19, the full moon will coincide with the perigee. If the weather permits, the dazzling show the moon put on Wednesday night could be even more magnificent this evening.
Just like rare blue moons — when a full moon appears twice in a month — apogees and perigees also sing the blues, appearing twice in the same month every now and then.
In April the moon will have two apogees, and the first one will coincide with April Fool’s Day. The second will be April 29.
In August it will be the perigee’s turn to show up twice, one on the 2nd and the other on the 30th.
Astronomers calculated the distance between the moon and the Earth as approximately 30 times our planet’s diameter, averaging 238,854 miles away from the Earth. But that distance changes everyday.
During the perigee the moon is approximately 225,622 miles away from the Earth. At apogee that distance increases to approximately 252,087 miles.
