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I believed this when I read it. However, it's not completely true. Below is an excerpt from Internet Tourbus about this story: --------------------- THE BRIGHTEST MOON? --------------------- Have you seen the "Brightest Moon in 133 Years" story yet? According to the widely-circulating story, there will be a super-bright full Moon on December 22. But is it true? The editors of Sky & Telescope Magazine have this to say: "The Moon reaches its very closest point all year (perigee) on the morning of December 22nd. That's only a few hours after the December solstice and a few hours before full Moon." But they go on to say that it's not particularly rare to have the lunar perigee, solstice, and full Moon occur at about the same time, and that the full Moon came closer to Earth in the years 1893, 1912, and 1930 than in 1866 or 1999. "The difference in brightness will be exceedingly slight," says Roger Sinnott, associate editor of S&T. Not quite a hoax perhaps, but definitely nothing to get excited over. For more information on the December 22 Moon, look here: <A href="http://www.skypub.com/news/news.shtml"> http://www.skypub.com/news/news.shtml </A> <A href="news:alt.astronomy"> news:alt.astronomy </A> Chris Morrow wrote: > > Providing the sky is clear and for the most part cloudless (or you > happen to be flying in a jet at 30,000 feet) we should be in for > something special on December 22nd. Happy Holidays..... > > *Full Moon on the Winter Solstice* > > For the first time in the life of anyone around today, we'll see a full > moon > occur on the Winter solstice, December 22nd, commonly called the first > day > of Winter. > > Since a full moon on the Winter solstice occurs 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 its > elliptical > orbit that is farthest from the Earth). > > Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this > time > of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7% > stronger, making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee > of the > Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly reforming. If the > weather is clear and there is 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 ambush on soldiers > in > 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. -- Renee Cordrey, MSPT, CWS "He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines." Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1733 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%