If skies clear on this Saturday, go out and look for the giant moon rising in the east.This phenomenan of moon will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers. During this phenomena,the earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days.
However,the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (around 50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon's apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.
The moon will appear about 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than other full moon during this whole year 2009.
This month's full moon is known as the Wolf Moon from Native American folklore. January's is also known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.
If you have other plans for Saturday night, take heart: You can see all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Friday night and later Sunday night.
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