Watch bigger brighter moon tonight: moon at its closest to earth since 1993 | Hacker News Reader

Watch bigger brighter moon tonight: moon at its closest to earth since 1993

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30 pointsjyothi21 comments

On my way into work this morning I noticed that the tide was about two feet higher than normal high tide in the channel near Rowes Wharf in Boston. Some navigation lights on piers were even underwater. I was wondering what the heck was going on, now I know.

How much closer is it than the closest point last year?

Looks like a bit under 200km

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html

~0.05% closer.

I suspected as much. So the headline "Moon closest since 1993" becomes "Moon .05% closer than last year." This example explains a lot of what's wrong with the press. Their problems are deeper than a broken business model.

I'm afraid it's a fundamental problem, not related just to press per se.

Titles fight for attention, the most spectacular/salient ones win. Even here on HN, with much more sophisticated readers than general press/web have.

This is Red Queen effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_queen

Not really. If I did understand the details - due to the egg -shaped orbit, the distance at which moon is closest to earth (perigee) over the month/year varies every period. The current event is additionally happening over a full moon, which brings extra effects on its visible size, brightness and tides on the sea.

"today's event will be the closest lunar perigee since 1993, at 221,560 miles (356,566 kilometers) from Earth."

On average, the Moon is 378,000 km away, and at furthest, it is 399,300 km away from the Earth's surface. So, yesterday's full moon was 6% closer than the average.

Update: I found a apogee and perigee calculator http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html

Last closest was in 1993, which was also a full moon.

Mar 8 8:36 356529 km ++ F- 1h

Yesterday's in 2008 :

Dec 12 21:38 356567 km ++ F+ 4h

Ok, I think it is more like ... Mar 1993, Dec 2008, Nov 2016 ... mark the "local minima" if you plot month over month distance of the moon at perigee.

Surprise that special someone and take them out to see this.

You don't have to him/her them why the moon seems brighter and larger...

It was a fantastic sight last night, made me go out for a walk it was so perfect.

Wow, I was surfing last night and thought that it was the best sunset / moonrise I'd seen in years. Not surprising that there was an explanation.

Where were you surfing?

SF, CA. Ocean Beach, Sloat St. Email in profile if you ever want to go...

Nice, I'm in Santa Cruz but scored pretty decent OB the other day (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bporterfield/3087430163/)

Interestingly enough I was planning on emailing your company already! Don't see an email in the profile but you can reach me @ benporterfield on gmail. I'll try to send a mail to the contact us page and maybe I'll reach you - we should go surf!

Right on, just emailed you...

For the first time in weeks (months?) it's cloudy and rainy in the valley :(

At least it was clear out last night.

I am in Shanghai UTC+8, I've noticed the moon was bigger than ever before I read this on HN. It's so beautiful.

Was just telling my coworker about this and we talked about the optical illusion of how the moon looks bigger on the horizon than straight overhead. I always thought it was because the atmosphere acts like a lens, but it turns out I was wrong. Its just all in our brains. Interesting reference link to the phenomenon http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/top5_myths_020903-2.ht...

[Please, if you're easily offended, don't read further.]

Cool. I've got a date tonight, so I'm going to take my chica out onto my balcony and enjoy a few romantic minutes. Then I'll bonk her.

Who says being a geek isn't useful sometimes? -- thank you hacker news! ;)

Reminds me of this scene in Bruce Almighty:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1725338/bruce_and_grace_romant...

I kept reading because I'm not easily offended. Then the words "chica" and "bonk" offended me. Even out of context. Sorry :(

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