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BIG, BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL MOON

Posted in discovery, news, photoshoot by imkelvin on February 11, 2009

So I guess I wasn’t the only one who noticed that the moon is a lot fuller and brighter these days.

In the February 11, 2009 Wednesday issue of The Straits Times, ‘Full moon is a lot fuller these days’, it reported that the moon appeared larger and brighter than usual as it was at its closest distance to earth since 1957. On 10th January, the moon was approximately 305,000km away from earth since 1957 – 300,000km away. Dr Chew Tuan Chiong, chief executive of the Singapore Science Centre explained, “The distance between the Earth and the moon varies because the moon’s orbit around the Earth is an ellipse. It follows an oval-shaped path, not a round one.” (source here)

As I was chatting ‘camera-talk’ with reknown photographer-musician Chester Tan on facebook two days ago, he also commented about the moon and changed his nick to “Chester is admiring the bright moon.”

Here’re some photographs of the moon that Charlene and myself have taken on the 9th.

Pretty neat work, chick!

When will the next bright moon occur again? Some 50 years later?

According to ancient astronomy, phenomenons in the skies reveal that cosmic events are taking place. In the story of the birth of Christ, three wise men whom were experts in astronomy and astrology, understood the phenomenon in the skies (definitely not your average twinkle little stars), followed the stars and was led to the little baby Jesus in the manger. This is known as the Star of Bethlehem and here is something very cogent that corroborates with the Christmas story of the bible. The Chinese astronomers also recorded a new star in the constellation Capricorn in March – April of 5 B.C.E. which was visible for over 70 days.

I’ve included this diagram to reinforce how people and a culture from such a diverse background could attest to this phenomenon..