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!
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.
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.
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.
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...
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 39.0 ms ] threadYou don't have to him/her them why the moon seems brighter and larger...
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! ;)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1725338/bruce_and_grace_romant...
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!
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html
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
"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
At least it was clear out last night.