The Up and coming “Calamity” Moon Story is Myth
March 5th 2011 02:11
Category: Cosmic Objects
Earth Moon
No doubt that you may have read the recent stories on the doom and gloom proper gander mongers.
“The Moon is approaching Earth and a calamity will befall us all”
All this nonsense is regarding the Moon Perigee due on March 19 2011.
The Moon’s orbit varies slightly over the month this variance can be as much as 12000 km or more. Despite the variance we on earth cannot see any perceivable difference.
During the next few weeks the Moon will be at it’s closest approach to earth since 1993.
On March 19, the Moon will be just 356,577km away from Earth.
And the usual doom brigade speculators are saying that this will cause natural disasters however I strongly disagree.
There is some evidence that correlates the Moon’s approach to earth and earthquakes. Although some astronomers have a theory this can occur but as yet not fully substantiated.
A similar occurance happened in 2007 in my previous blog I wrote about “Tails of a wondering Moon” Read my previous blog
CURRENT MOON
In late July 2007 I took a series of images of the full moon and then compared them to the later images I obtained in late September 2007
I have prepared a graphic example to show you, I have taken two images of a full Moon using the same cameral and lense on each occasion.
The first image on the left was taken on July 31 2007 the Image on the right was taken on September 26 2007.
The Apogee ( greatest distance from Earth) was calculated at being around 404150 km on July 22 8:44conversly the Perigee (closest approach to Earth) was Sep 27 1:54 359419 km a variance of 44731 Km.
At the time these pictures were taken the size of the Moon appears to be the same in both images.
The eyes can be deceived in fact there not the same as the image on the right. The image on the right is slightly larger because the Moon was slightly closer to Earth.
You can measure both images using special software available on the net the Moon image on the right is around 6 pixels bigger.
See image Above
When I took these pictures I did not notice any difference in Moon size. The actual difference it is only when these images are compared that we find there is an actual difference in the two images of the Moon. Even though the eyes cannot see the difference at the time because there in no other visual reference.
Whether there will be any effects from the moon’s approach to Earth is hard to quantify.
There will be a small rise in ocean tides during this period. By my calculation the Moon will be some 355469 km. The usual Moon Earth distance is on average 398450 km. The Moon about 4300Km closer to Earth on March the 19th 2011.
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