Last Friday's Wolf Moon

Chances are, many of you readers were forwarded some email or received a facebook post about the moon last Friday. Last Friday the smallest distance between the moon and earth, or its perigree, was reached. Actually, to be more accurate, the moon was as close to earth as it can get - 221,577 miles - at 4:04 AM on Saturday morning.



These photos were taken around midnight so the moon was actually moving closer to us at this time. It's not common for the perigree to occur at the same time that the moon is full, which is why this is considered a special event.


What made it even more unusual, was that Mars was "at opposition" last Friday, too. That meant it was opposite the sun and thus rose with the moon. On January 27, the red planet was nearest to the earth at a mere 61 million miles and was still quite close to us two days later on the 29th (click image above to enlarge).



The name 'wolf moon' was applied by Native Americans who often viewed this midwinter moon with the accompaniment of hungry, howling wolves.



Regular readers know I had to get a new camera recently. I have to say, I think my fairly everyday Canon 10x Zoom did pretty well with these shots. Now if only there was a bit more plant life to shoot!