IJMC - Bright Nights

One thing I like about the Solstice...the event is hard to argue about. 
Quite simply, the Solstice is what it claims to be, the longest or the 
shortest day of the year. Now maybe that is not something for everyone to 
celebrate...but some people celebrate a groundhog who is scared of his 
own shadow! Different strokes for different folks, I s'pose...      -dave






This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice,
Dec. 22nd, commonly called the first day of winter. Since a full moon on
the winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in
the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14%
larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is
farthest from the Earth).  Since the Earth is also several million miles
closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight
striking the moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter.  Also, this
will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit
is constantly deforming.  If the weather is clear and there is a snow
cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be
superfluous.  On December 21st, 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of
this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory
ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory. 
 
In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full moon, much more than the
usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors 133
years ago saw this.  Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see
this again. 
 
Remember this will happen December 22, 1999.