Perigree Moon at Niles Pond

Birch Trees at Niles Pond for Maggie Rosa

I arrived at the Good Harbor foot bridge early and waited for the moon to rise, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Had I read the time incorrectly? Impatiently I left and as I was coming around the crest of the hill on the back shore, there was the perigree moon , in full glorious orange rising across sea. I hadn’t gotten the timing wrong, only the location. In my hurriedness to set up, I parked poorly and almost got run over getting out of the car. Struggling with my tripod in the dark I tripped and crashed and snapped off a leg; tripod is now a monopod. After all that, I was surprised to see the night wasn’t a complete waste of time. Note to self–bring flashlight and go with a friend when photographing late at night!

Perigree Moon at Niles Pond

Birch Trees at Niles Pond for Maggie Rosa

I arrived at the Good Harbor foot bridge early and waited for the moon to rise, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Had I read the time incorrectly? Impatiently I left and as I was coming around the crest of the hill on the back shore, there was the perigree moon , in full glorious orange rising across sea. I hadn’t gotten the timing wrong, only the location. In my hurriedness to set up, I parked poorly and almost got run over getting out of the car. Struggling with my tripod in the dark I tripped and crashed and snapped off a leg; tripod is now a monopod. After all that, I was surprised to see the night wasn’t a complete waste of time. Note to self–bring flashlight and go with a friend when photographing late at night!

There’s also a meteor shower from Halley’s comet peaking tonight, too, adding to the sky show.

The moon will be up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full Moons of 2012, according to NASA.

That’s because it will reach perigee, its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, at 11:34 p.m. EST and become full just a minute later.

Super perigee moons happen about once a year on average and can cause slightly higher tides than normal.

The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which is associated with Halley’s comet, will coincide with the coming perigee moon. Its light will likely dim all but the brightest meteors.

A good time to watch is during moonrise or moonset. At these times, due to reasons astronomers don’t fully understand, the moon can appear much larger than when it is higher in the sky.

May’s full moon will hit on Saturday night into Sunday and is called a “super Moon” and will appear as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full Moons of 2012, according to NASA.

Scientifically, the super Moon is known as the “perigree moon.” The term comes from different sides of the moon, the perigree and apogee. The perigree side of the moon is roughly 50,000 km closer than the apogee side, according to NASA.

Thus, perigree moons are typically bigger and brighter than apogee moons.

The perigree will be reached Saturday night at 11:34 p.m. Eastern Time. One minute later, the moon will line up with the Earth and the sun to become full, NASA said.

Click on image to enlarge.

This is my first ever humble attempt to create a lunar montage *Please forgive my lack of skill in image processing. I’m still working on it.* Haha!

The Moon phases were from March 1 (waxing crescent, topmost right) up to March 29 (waning crescent, bottom right). All photos converge to the Perigree Moon (or Super Full Moon) of last March 19, 2011 which was at the lowermost left.

During its full phase, the Supermoon is roughly 34 arc minutes (~0.6 degrees) and is about 357,000km close to Earth.

Please take note that no images were taken during March 2, 4, 5 and 6 because of the thick cloud cover during those days.

I used MS Office Picture Manager to edit the individual photos and Picasa 3 to compose the montage.

Images taken using MicroObservatory Online Telescopes.

MicroObservatory is a network of five automated telescopes that can be controlled over the Internet.

Location: Massachusetts and Arizona

The telescopes were developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (Cambridge, MA.)

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Read more about the Moon Illusion

Ozark Beauty strawberry

Vernal equinox in Chicago was ushered in today by a perigee “super” moon and morning thunder showers. The strawberries and roses I transplanted early in the week are loving this weather and already showing signs of growth. Aside from those plantings I won’t be doing much upstairs until I get back from Portland, OR. SO anxious to get my hands dirty on April 2nd when I get back- better late than never.

Gives me time to find a source for organic granular all-purpose fertilizer. Probably go with FoxFarm or a vegetarian fert. Any suggestions out there?

As promised, here’s a quick rundown of yesterday’s Family Farmed Expo. When we arrived Dale Levitsky of Sprout Restaurant was giving a demonstration and treating the audience to samples. Samples was a theme for the day, with nearly every table offering small treats. Picked up a free pack of heirloom okra from Chicago Botanic Garden’s table and Chipotle was giving out coupons for free soup. We sampled some tasty spicy arugula sprouts. Must start sprouting!

Baker's Creek heirloom okra "Vidrine's Midget Cowhorn"

The Kids Corner was busy with young’ns playing with fluffy little chicks. We wanted to play with the chickens too but it wouldn’t have looked good for us adults to be displacing the curious kids!

Came across adverts for several upcoming regional green and gardening events:

• World Fair Trade Day – Daley Plaza, May 6th
• GreenFestival – McCormick Place, May 14th-15th
• Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival – Muscoda, WI, May 14th-15th
• Green City Market – Check out their 2011 calendar for outdoor market opening, LETTUCE Festival, garden workshops and more.

If you know of an upcoming Chicagoland/regional event or green/food/gardening related giveaway, please feel welcome to comment here or message me.

Ready for a change of season? The March Equinox will occur on Sunday, March 20th this year, marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. The exact time is 23:21 (or 11:21 p.m.) at Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is 4:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, 7:21 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

“Equinox” means “equal night” in Latin and, twice a year (in March and September), the sun shines directly on the equator, and the length of day and night are nearly equal in all parts of the world.

In addition, the full moon that heralds the Equinox on the night of March 19th will appear especially large and bright, due to its closer-than-usual relation to Earth. This supermoon, or perigee moon, is due to rise in the east and be the biggest in almost 20 years. If you are blessed with clear skies tonight, you will probably want to have a look.

I’ve long been quite entranced with the full moon names and their variations. Of course, they reflect both the need to mark passing time and the way that time was experienced by people who were living close to the land. Lunar time-keeping pre-dated our modern calendars (and some calendars, like the Jewish and Chinese calendars, are still lunar-based.) The Farmer’s Almanac has a good list of Native American full moon names and how each came to be.

Other, even older, cultures have had moon naming traditions, too. This site lists full moon names from Chinese, Celtic, Pacific Island, Native American, Pagan, and other cultures.

Lots of people garden using the phases of the moon. The good news is that there isn’t one best time to plant — Each aspect of planting has an associated moon phase, based on how much moisture is pulled up through the soil by the monthly pull of the moon (much the way the moon influences the tides.)

The time just after the full moon is an especially good time for planting root crops, as the gravitational pull is high (adding more moisture to the soil) and the moonlight is decreasing, contributing energy to the roots. For this reason, the waning moon is also a good time to plant bulbs and transplants.

The Farmer’s Almanac offers a wonderful moon phase calendar for the U.S. that allows you to plug in your location and get the exact time of your local full moon.

Enjoy the new season and the supermoon!

Photos: NASA (Moon), Susan Sachs Lipman