Don't Miss The FULL Full Moon

Mark your calendar. On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years.

"The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993," says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. "I'd say it's worth a look."

Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee): diagram. Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit.

"The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee--a near-perfect coincidence¹ that happens only 18 years or so," adds Chester. A perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high "perigean tides," but this is nothing to worry about, according to NOAA. In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters (six inches)--not exactly a great flood.

Indeed, contrary to some reports circulating the Internet, perigee Moons do not trigger natural disasters. The "super moon" of March 1983, for instance, passed without incident. And an almost-super Moon in Dec. 2008 also proved harmless.

Okay, the Moon is 14% bigger than usual, but can you really tell the difference? It's tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon can seem much like any other.

The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. On March 19th, why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you can almost reach out and touch it.

Don't bother. Even a super perigee Moon is still 356,577 km away. That is, it turns out, a distance of rare beauty.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/

Some Believe The Rapture To Begin May 21, 2011

All right everybody, empty those pension funds, quit your jobs, and repent, because the end times are so nigh you can mark them on your calendar.

Apparently, the second coming is scheduled for May 21, 2011, according to Harold Camping, the leader of independent Christian ministry Family Radio Worldwide. He’s gotten that message out to Christians around the country—through radio shows, the Internet, and like-minded independent churches—and started a small movement whose members are convinced that they shall know the day and the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. Camping, 89, tells the AP that the dedicated can read the Bible like a kind of cosmic calendar. “Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment,” he says. He figures the subsequent end of days will occur sometime around October.
The AP talked to a lot of people who agree, including one woman who is organizing an RV caravan across the country to spread the news. "Time is short," she says.

www.newser.com

Here's more..........

RALEIGH, N.C. --

If there had been time, Marie Exley would have liked to start a family. Instead, the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning: Judgment Day is almost here.

Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011.

To get the word out, they're using billboards and bus stop benches, traveling caravans of RVs and volunteers passing out pamphlets on street corners. Cities from Bridgeport, Conn., to Little Rock, Ark., now have billboards with the ominous message, and mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the United States.

"A lot of people might think, 'The end's coming; let's go party,' " said Exley, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq. "But we're commanded by God to warn people. I wish I could just be like everybody else, but it's so much better to know that when the end comes, you'll be safe."

In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible.

She is organizing RVs carrying the message from city to city, a logistical challenge that her military experience has helped solve.

The vehicles are scheduled to be in five North Carolina cities between now and the second week of January, but Exley will be gone overseas, where she hopes eventually to make it back to Iraq.

"I don't really have plans to come back," she said. "Time is short."

Allison Warden, 29, of Raleigh, has been helping organize a campaign using billboards, postcards and other media in cities across the United States through a website, We Can Know.

Asked about reactions to the message, which is plastered all over her car, she laughs.

"It's definitely against the grain. I know that," she said. "We're hoping people won't take our word for it or Harold Camping's word for it. We're hoping that people will search the Scriptures for themselves."

www.timesdispatch.com