P3D Re: What is Rare?

[Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian Reynolds writes,
>I'm particularly sensitive to this problem (over hyping of
>astronomical events) 

>There are plenty of amazing things to see (including the moon),
>but over hyping them does no one any good.

What! I thought "over-hyping", was the only way you could get
any 3-D, out of extra-terrestial bodies. ;-)

I don't know the source of the article below (someone send it
to me by email) but for interests sake, I'm posting it below.

Gabriel



MARK YOUR CALENDAR.......YOU NEED TO SEE THIS. SO DO YOUR KIDS.

It will be the Last Lunar Hurrah of the Millennium: This year will be the
first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec. 22, commonly called
the first day of winter. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurred
in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is
closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at
apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth).
Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time
of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7%
stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the
Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the
weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you live, it is believed
that even car headlights will be superfluous.

On December 21st. 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination
of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in
the Wyoming Territory. In layman's terms it will be a super bright full
moon, much more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133
years! Our ancestors 133 years ago saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years
from now will see this again. I hope you might find this interesting!

Remember this will happen December 22, 1999.....