By Nikki Garrett Metzger
(Honolulu)– Beware the full moon tonight – it could be spell binding! Well, maybe not SPELL BINDING, but it is going to be special. Tonight’s full moon is called the Super Moon. It will be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the other full moons this year.
The science behind it, courtesy of NASA: Full moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the moon’s orbit. The moon follows an elliptical orbit around the earth, with one side, perigee, about 50,000 kilometers closer to the earth than the other, or apogee side.
The last time we experienced a super moon? March 2011.
Folklore holds that all sorts of things happen during a full moon – hospital admissions increase, the crime rate ticks upward, and people behave strangely. Studies have shown, however, that there is no correlation between the phase of the moon and the incidence of crime, sickness, or human behavior.
Another concern could be a higher than normal tide. While it is true that a perigee moon brings extra high tides, NOAA says lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide water only a few centimeters, an inch or so, higher than usual.
At 5:34 p.m. HST, the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That’s about 15,300 miles closer than average.
So, get out there tonight and enjoy the full moon. Take your camera and capture some of those funny pictures, like the ones where it looks like you are holding the moon between your fingers or it is sitting on top of your head. Those are always great to post to social networks!