I received this from another list I am subscribed to and thought some here
would find this of interest, even though it is somewhat North
American-centric:


Everyone should mark their calendars as this will be the last lunar hurrah
of this century.  This year will be the first full moon to occur on the
winter solstice, Dec.  22, commonly called the first day of winter, in a
long time.

Since a full moon on the winter solstice is occurring 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).

This will make it appear brighter.

 The Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun, than in the
summer.  Thus the sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger, making it
still brighter.

Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year. (The moon's
orbit is constantly deforming due to variances in the Earth's gravitational
field.)

If the weather is clear and there isn't 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 night 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.  Some of you should find this interesting!

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


Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]     Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231