ARCHDRUID EILEEN 'SPLAINS IT ALL ABOUT THE SUPERMOON

Archdruid Eileen answers questions about the supermoon.

Q - What exactly is the Supermoon?

A - It's when the Moon suddenly becomes much larger than normal. This makes it considerably brighter and more massive.

This one snippet will serve to send you over to the site of the Beaker Folk to read the rest of the Q&A.

Last night the moon was beautiful and appeared full, but I gather tonight is the night.

The photo is from NASA and was not taken tonight.

UPDATE: The supermoon was gorgeous here this evening.

'SUPERMOON' SATURDAY NIGHT

From Live Science:

Thanks to a fluke of orbital mechanics that brings the moon closer to Earth than that it has been in more than 18 years, the biggest full moon of 2011 will occur on Saturday, leading some observers to dub it a "supermoon."

On Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the moon will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 2011: a distance of 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) away. And only 50 minutes earlier, the moon will officially be full.

At its peak, the supermoon of March may appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons (when the moon is at its farthest from Earth), weather permitting. Yet to the casual observer, it may be hard to tell the difference.

Great moon ball shines bright
Journeys on dark night's ceiling
Sun's light brings to earth

Image from Space.com

Thanks to Doug for the link to the story.