You’ve Just Been Mooned With A Side of Jupiter 10/10/11

I came across the article earlier today and I was quit excited to see this and wait for Tuesday. It was a clear night tonight so I went outside in  front of my house, saw a beautiful moon shining down on me and I took this picture with my cell phone. And WOW is all I have to say.   I can’t wait until Tuesday!  Shera~    




In my more than 40 years as an amateur astronomer, I’ve given countless numbers of people views of a variety of celestial objects through telescopes.  And most people usually will tell me that the first object in the sky that attracted their attention as youngsters was the ever-changing moon.

Many may recall the attention given to our nearest neighbor in space in March when that months’ full moon very nearly coincided with the lunar perigee — the point in the moon’s orbit in which it is nearest to Earth. At a distance of 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers), some media outlets even christened it the“Supermoon” of 2011 because of its unusual closeness. But on Tuesday night (Oct. 11) we will have the astronomical opposite of a supermoon. At 10:06 p.m. EDT (0206 GMT), the moon will officially turn full, but it will be the smallest full moon of 2011 The sky map of the smallest full moon of the year shows where it will appear on Tuesday night when it reaches its full phase. Less than 10 hours after the October full moon peaks, at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Wednesday, the moon will arrive at the apogee of its orbit (the farthest point from Earth each month), which in October is a distance of 252,546 miles (406,434 km). That’s only 154 miles (248 km) shy of the moon’s absolute farthest point from Earth it can reach. [Photos: Harvest Moon of 2011] A puny full moon Looking at the moon during Tuesday night, perhaps you will be struck by the noticeably small size of the moon’s disk,more from space.com