The Moon, Closer to Earth than in 15 Years

[MELISSA84008]

...'Supermoon' coming again March 19th, 2011

[SkateZOmbi]

if the moon gets to close to us it will explode into a quintillion little pieces and yes quintillion is a real word

[steekboy10]

lol this reminds me of bruce almighty when he ties a rope around the moon

[descrambler]

I believe that one day our moon will be destroyed or possibly bumped into us. If it is ever destroyed....we're fucked...our water is pulled towards the moon, so as we orbit the Sun and the moon orbits us, the water follows the moon. No moon, still water. Can't have that! The real problem that we face is the fact that the Sun's solar flare activity will be climaxing in the next few years....it'll wipe out all our electrical....and possibly toast us

[LCPD9111]

thats because the moon's gravity pulls the oceans towthinkards it and i think  k3n4olk is right

[Vildasnaga]

Yeah I herd about this, but there was cloud coverage where i was :( oh well ill catch another one on 2016 then!

[k3n4olk]

you are wrong it is a proven fact that the moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of about 1" a year. sorry to burst your bubble.

[Vildasnaga]

Moron, ever heard of perigee?

[TheGeckoNinja]

i need to get out more i totally missed it :/

i would have liked to see it that close

[Ashybasha]

That's cool. I've been taking a few pictures of the Moon myself with my telephoto lens and it's interesting to see the Moon from a lower latitude. Here in Canada, the Moon appears slightly more clockwise than it does from your location in Texas.

[ChuckyJesus666]

Where did you hear this? Everything I've heard about the moon is that it is steadily moving away from the earth at the rate of what...13 inches per year? So how could it be closer than 15 years ago?

[aajoeyjo]

ChuckyJesus666 - Good question. I believe it's because the moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, not a perfect circle. The moon's orbit around the sun is also elliptical. Put those two together, and we were just at the close end of an oval pattern that's drifting away. The entire path the moon takes is what's moving away. 15 years ago we were at this same end, but closer, if it's drifting away. In 15 more years, that same spot will come again, but a little farther away...I believe.

[ChuckyJesus666]

OK, thanks for the explanation, but I think, after looking into it, that I can put this a little more succinctly. The title makes one think that the moon itself is closer than it's been in 15 years, but what is meant is that the full moon is closer than it's been. That's only because the full moon coincides with the point of apogee (the closest approach to the earth in the elliptical orbit).

[k3n4olk]

it only 1" a year. if it was 13 the moon would be so far from us it'll look like a spec

[aajoeyjo]

I heard about this in the news, and a real good report about it is linked in the info box of this video page. It's good stuff.

[Ciscokid42069]

@ChuckyJesus666 at longest distance the moon is 252,000 miles away. closet it comes is 222,000 but i also heard it is slowly leading away from us

[ChuckyJesus666]

@Ciscokid42069 Yes, thanks...I'm aware of those facts.

[Anon1696]

I have a skylight in my room and when i turned my lights off, I thought there was a UFO above my house.

I looked at a different angle and saw that it was the moon.

I didn't even know it was closer than it has ever been in 15 years.

I stared in awe at it until I couldn't see it anymore.

[Anon1696]

...And I rarely ever do that.

[rednecktrucker1969]

great vid.

[wizeee]

actually, the moon is getting further away from earth at a rate of 2.5 inches a year.

[rednecktrucker1969]

yup, it will eventually lose its orbit all together and drift off.

[wizeee]

which is quite scary. life on earth would not be possible without our moon.

[CousinoMacul]

I wouldn't call it drifting away. What will happen (assuming all else stays the same) is that as its orbit widens, the sun will begin to get the gravitational upper hand on the "inside" of the moon's orbit and strip it from the earth (after millions of years of very eccentric orbits around earth). It will then be a planetoid.

[CousinoMacul]

In fact, the moon already orbits the sun and the sun's gravity is stronger on the moon than the earth's is, but the moon is within the earth's gravitational basin and so it orbits the earth as it orbits the sun. :-)

[rednecktrucker1969]

ok mr.science...i was just trying to be poetic, not literal. I am a red neck trucker after all. lol

[CousinoMacul]

Oh, I'm all about the poetry. But being "Mr. Science"--or perhaps "Mr. Science Pundit" ;-)--I prefer poetry that more accurately reflects reality. So instead of "it will eventually lose its orbit all together and drift off" if you had said "it will eventually wander far enough away that its orbit will be stolen by the sun" I would have been in lyrical ecstasy.

OK, perhaps I'm exaggerating. ;-P

[XxLuciferousxX]

I walked outside my house at around 12midnight and I was like "what the hell, it's really bright out here" then my husband was like "oh yeah! the moon is closer to earth than in 15 years" I was like O.o really?

[freedom0f5peech]

That's awesome! I mever tried to point my camera at the moon before... I gotta do that!

[aajoeyjo]

freedom0f5peech - Excellent. Now I have learned that it's important to have the camera settings right for this. I had to adjust my iris and shutter settings manually, which took a few minutes to figure out. Happy taping!

[desirap]

nice !

[GodMythology]

Wow. What video cam you have?

[aajoeyjo]

I have a Panasonic PVG-S90. It's actually very inexpensive and small with few capabilities, but they're the right capabilities for me. I had to adjust the iris and shutter settings manually for this shot, and that took some time. Anyway I highly recommend this make and model of camcorder. My review and others agree that it beats the rest in this price range - even Sony!