Oleg Zabluda's blog
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
 
Full Moon is Saturday, May 5 2012 at 8:35pm PDT, which almost coincides with the perigee only one minute earlier...
Full Moon is Saturday, May 5 2012 at 8:35pm PDT, which almost coincides with the perigee only one minute earlier 8:34pm PDT, at the distance of 221,802 mi (=356,955 km). It will be huge! For comparison, apogee will be May 19 9:14am PDT, at 252,556 mi (=406,450 km) [1], which is 14% farther away. New Moon will be 1d7h later on May 20 4:48pm.

What you can resolve on the Moon changes linearly with distance, brightness changes are quadratic (1.14^2=1.3), tidal forces and cubic (1.14^3=1.5), and if you want to bounce optical or radio photons from the Moon for whatever reason, it's fourth power (1.14^4=1.7). Use this opportunity wisely.

Not only tidal forces are cubic, but Moon and Sun are aligned and tides add up. It's not as impressive as when the Earth was at perihelion Jan 5, 2012, but still run for your life! [2], if you happened to be within a foot of drowning during previous high tide. There is still time.

If you are still here, during the same night the remnants of Halley's Comet, Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks (ZHR=60/hr), but due to superbright Full Moon, forgetaboutit.

Long term overview from http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
"The closest perigee in the years 1750 through 2125 was 356375 km on 4th January 1912; the most distant apogee in the same period will be 406720 km on 3rd February 2125. [...] Extreme values for perigee and apogee distance occur when perigee or apogee passage occurs close to new or full Moon, and long-term extremes are in the months near to Earth's perihelion passage"

[1] Which my car passed long long time ago.
[2] That's one way how they calculate "100 year flood around here", if the Moon is Full in perigee, and the Earth is in perihelion, and the strong wind is blowing from the Pacific Ocean, raising seal level, and a tsunami comes, ....
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/02may_supermoon/

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