But this month we had perigree moon!
We had this amazing 'Supermoon' on Sunday 6 May. We were told that it would be enormous and 16% brighter than normal as it was at it's closest approach to the earth, a mere 356,955 kms away in fact. Apparently there will be several in 2012 but they vary by 3% because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular.
Apart from being a day early to go out and ooh and aah, (we were given the wrong information and rushed out to look at a nearly full moon), when we finally got it right, it was beautiful. We watched and waited and it rose behind our house and climbed above the small hill behind us. We always have a wonderful view of the moon and stars here as there is very little light pollution. I tried to take a photo of it between the houses but it did not do it justice at all.
 |
| Perigree moon between the houses |
I remember when I was small, mum used to talk about 'Harvest Moon', and farmers only planted when the moon was right, I remember something about no rain if the moon was lying on it's back. And then there's Blue Moon, where there are four full moons in a season (3 months). The word 'lunatic' comes from the Latin word lunaticus meaning 'of the moon' or 'moonstruck'. The moon plays an important part in our daily lives and I was most impressed when Rob found the following information on the names of the different moons.
January: Old Moon, or Moon After Yule
February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, or Wolf Moon
March: Sap Moon, Crow Moon, or Lenten Moon
April: Grass Moon, or Egg Moon
May: Planting Moon, or Milk Moon
June: Rose Moon, Flower Moon, or Strawberry Moon
July: Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon
August: Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon
September: Fruit Moon, or Harvest Moon
October: Harvest Moon, or Hunter’s Moon
November: Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
December: Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon
I presume these names are for the northern hemisphere as we would never have a Snow Moon in February! Hopefully!
No comments:
Post a Comment