Coming Your Way

I hope you enjoyed the cold weather we sent you from the Yukon last week. This is what comes behind it.

While I walked my dog this afternoon, it was 10º C. (That’s 50º F for the metric impaired.) This is a January thaw that’s almost enough to make up for the month of cold.

Here’s a photo that I should have uploaded and posted last week. This is what it looks like down by the river when it’s -30ºish.

Tonight's Full Moon

Tonight’s full moon will appear larger and brighter than any full moon since 1993. That’s because this full moon comes at the point in the moon’s orbit when it is nearest to the earth. When the full moon and this close orbital point coincide, our moon comes nearer than ever, and the nearer it is, the bigger and brighter it looks.1

Tonight’s moon will be less than 357,000 kilometers from the earth. We’ll have to wait until 2016 for it to come this close again.

As an added bonus for those of us in the northern hemisphere, this full moon will be higher in the sky than any other this year. We can look for it nearly overhead at midnight.

Why not plan an evening walk to enjoy this unusual occurance? You won’t need a flashlight because there will be 30% more light than this year’s other full moons.

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1See the notable difference in the size and brightness of the full moon between it’s perigee (when it’s closest to us) and it’s apogee (when it’s farthest from us).

Perfect!

You’re  all out doing fun things for Memorial Day weekend, so you don’t mind if I post self-indulgent drivel like this, do you?

I was beginning to think this might be another year with no summer, but now I’m more optomistic. Yesterday was a milestone day. I hung my laundry outdoors for the first time this year. Today’s been a milestone day, too—my first garage sale Saturday of the season. Life is good.