Saturday, 19 March 2011

The Moving Moon Went Up The Sky,

And no where did abide:

Softly she was going up,

And a star or two beside, in case you do not know what the poem is about, tonight the moon will be nearer to the UK than it has been for the last 18 years, full Moons vary in size because of the elliptical (or oval) shape of the Moon's orbit, at its furthest point (the apogee) it is around 252,731miles away from us, but it is only around 226,426miles at its closest point (the perigee), so nearby perigee moons, like the one we will see tonight, is around 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the moon's orbit, in case you are wondering the Moon will be 'just' 221,567 miles away tonight, also in case you are wondering where the poem came from and you have forgotten your English literature classes it is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, I know I should not say it, but I really hated that poem at school, but there are a couple of lines that many people will have heard of from the poem, Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

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