Yesterday morning, September 18, 2024, the full moon peered between branches of trees and seemed to wink at us as we walked through the neighborhood in the predawn twilight. It appeared especially large and bright then and for good reason. It was about as close to Earth as it ever gets.
The orbit of the moon is not perfectly circular, but more like a slightly flattened circle called an ellipse. A circle has a center while an ellipse has two “focal points” on either side of its center, and Earth lies at one of the focal points of the moon’s elliptical orbit. Hence the moon gets nearer or farther from Earth, depending on where it is in its orbit.
When the moon is closest to Earth it is at “perigee” and is referred to at the “perigean moon” or “super moon.” However, with it seeming to play hide and seek through the trees on the western horizon yesterday morning, I think it can also be properly called the “peekaboo moon.”
#moon #perigeanmoon #ellipse
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 