WATCH FOR HUGE MOON AS FACTORS COINCIDE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303070103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Short
WATCH FOR HUGE MOON AS FACTORS COINCIDE
It's going to be a marvelous night for a moon dance. That's because tonight, astronomers say, the moon will not only be full but 23,454 miles closer to Earth - meaning that when it hits your eye it will look like a really, really big pizza pie.
The astronomical reason for that is because the moon's perigee will be falling on its syzygy.
Those cold terms mean that about once a year the moon is at its closest point to Earth (the perigee) on the night of a full moon, which happens when the moon and the sun are aligned on opposite sides of the Earth. That's syzygy.
This year the moon will be 216,546 miles from Earth, almost 10 percent closer than its usual 240,000, said Derrick Pitts, head astronomer at the Franklin Institute's Fels Planetarium.
- Associated Press

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB