Despite the enormous amount of hype, tonight's full moon will look just like any other full moon. Here's what's really happening.
The moon is full at 9:31 a.m. on Wednesday morning the 22nd, which for practical purposes means it will look full tonight, Tuesday, and tomorrow, Wednesday. The moon is full once every month, of course. This full moon comes only seven hours after the moon is at perigee - its closest point to the earth, and this is the moon's closest perigee for 1999. That makes the moon look a bit bigger and a bit brighter than on the average - but not by enough to notice. The full moon will be 7% brighter than when it is at its farthest (at apogee), and no one is going to notice such a small increase. Tonight's full moon will look just like any other. Enjoy!
Because today is the solstice, the shortest day of the year, this is the longest night of the year and the full moon will be above the horizon longer than normal.
The true story here is not brightness - it's gravity. This full moon comes when the moon is at its closest to the earth for the year and two weeks before the sun is at its closest to earth for the year. All this conspires to generate higher tides than usual, and at the Los Angeles tides will 7 feet or higher at 8:08 a.m. on the 22nd and again at 8:52 a.m. on the 23rd. Low tides will be especially low (2:31 p.m. on the 21st, 3:17 p.m. on the 22nd, 4:04 p.m. on the 23rd, and 4:52 p.m. on the 34th). High tides in and of themselves pose no threat, but were a major storm to come along at the same time - and none is expected - there would be trouble along the coast.
[The unwritten story is how the news media can be taken in by and even promote hype about an "event" of so little significance.]
The winter solstice, which is the moment when winter officially begins, occurs at 11:44 p.m. on Tuesday evening, December 21st. The sun has been south of the earth's equator since the autumn equinox on September 23, and the winter solstice marks the moment when the sun reaches its point farthest south and begins to reverse course. It also marks the lowest noontime elevation of the sun. It also marks the dates when the sun's rising and setting points are farthest south of east and west respectively. The solstice is also the shortest day of the year - 9 hours and 53 minutes at the latitude of Los Angeles.
For further information on the moon tonight, go to:
http://www.spacescience.com/newhome/headlines/ast19dec99_1.htm
http: //cnn.com/1999/TECH/space/12/17/moon.show.ap/index.html
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