Supermoon Saturday: Why it's the biggest, brightest of 2012 (+video)

Supermoon Saturday: It's also called the 'Flower Moon,' and 'Milk Moon.' The 'supermoon' will be only 221,802 miles from Earth, the closest to our planet this year.

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth ? a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away.?

Skip to next paragraph Another "super-Moon" is in the offing. The perigee full Moon in May will be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2012.

The effect of this coincidence is a stunning skywatching sight called the "supermoon."

In fact, this month's perigee is the closest of any perigee in 2012 (they vary by about 3 percent, because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular). The result will be a 16 percent brighter-than-average full moon accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week.

In contrast, later this year, on Nov. 28, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest point from Earth. [Amazing Supermoon Photos from 2011]

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

Spring tides

Every month, "spring" tides occur when the moon is full and new. The word "spring," in this case, is derived from the German springen, to "spring up," and is not ? as is often mistaken ? a reference to the spring season. At these times the moon and sun form a line with Earth, so their tidal effects add together.? The sun, because of its distance, exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.

"Neap" tides, on the other hand, occur at those times when the moon is at first and last quarter and work at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times, tides are weak.

Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. During the supermoon on Saturday, the moon will be 12.2 percent closer at perigee than it will be two weeks later at apogee, which will nearly coincide with a new moon.? Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force during this weekend's spring tides than during the spring tides near apogee two weeks later. ?

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation, and for a day or so before and after most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full." The shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it is present or on which side it is.?

And while this weekend's moon will be ? as the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada suggests on page 101 ?- the "largest full moon of 2012," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.?

Or is it?

Moon illusion

When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.

So, a perigee moon, either rising in the East at sunset or dropping down in the West at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost seems that you could touch it. You can check out this effect for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset in your area here: http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/rs-one-year-us

And one final note: Saturday also marks the midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact moment between the March equinox and the June solstice occurs at 10:11 a.m. EDT May 5.? And this spring's big full moon seemingly places an exclamation point on this seasonal benchmark. Traditionally, the full moon of May is known as the "Flower Moon" since flowers are now abundant most everywhere. It is also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.

Happy moon watching!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

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HTC EVO V 4G (Virgin Mobile USA) hands-on

Does that handset above look familiar to you? It should because you've seen it once before when Sprint debuted it as the EVO 3D. This time, however, the phone that failed to ignite much consumer interest is back with a rebranded moniker -- EVO V 4G -- a new home on Virgin Mobile, that 3D screen and a $299 price. We managed to get some hands-on time with the device and for better or for worse, it's still packing the same list of specs: 4.3-inch qHD display, 1.3 megapixel front-facing / dual 5 megapixel rear cameras, dual-core 1.2GHz processor buffered by 1GB RAM and packing 4GB of internal storage with an additional 8GB furnished by an included microSD card.

Cosmetically, nothing has changed from its postpaid to prepaid journey, so you're still getting that same bulky build, jarring button layout for the 3D to 2D slider and the three quarter grooved plastic back. What counts, however, is the software it runs, namely Android 4.0.3. Yes, right out of the gate the company intends to ship this 4G WiMAX device (sorry, it's not future-proofed for LTE) with a Sense 3.6 skin running atop Ice Cream Sandwich. It's not HTC's latest lightweight 4.0 UX, but for the market it's aimed at, it'll do just fine. Check out our gallery below for additional shots of this fat smartphone ahead of its planned June launch.

Gallery: EVO V 4G hands-on

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

HTC EVO V 4G (Virgin Mobile USA) hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Supermoon Saturday: Why it's the biggest, brightest of 2012 (+video)

Supermoon Saturday: It's also called the 'Flower Moon,' and 'Milk Moon.' The 'supermoon' will be only 221,802 miles from Earth, the closest to our planet this year.

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth ? a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away.?

Skip to next paragraph Another "super-Moon" is in the offing. The perigee full Moon in May will be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2012.

The effect of this coincidence is a stunning skywatching sight called the "supermoon."

In fact, this month's perigee is the closest of any perigee in 2012 (they vary by about 3 percent, because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular). The result will be a 16 percent brighter-than-average full moon accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week.

In contrast, later this year, on Nov. 28, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest point from Earth. [Amazing Supermoon Photos from 2011]

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

Spring tides

Every month, "spring" tides occur when the moon is full and new. The word "spring," in this case, is derived from the German springen, to "spring up," and is not ? as is often mistaken ? a reference to the spring season. At these times the moon and sun form a line with Earth, so their tidal effects add together.? The sun, because of its distance, exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.

"Neap" tides, on the other hand, occur at those times when the moon is at first and last quarter and work at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times, tides are weak.

Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. During the supermoon on Saturday, the moon will be 12.2 percent closer at perigee than it will be two weeks later at apogee, which will nearly coincide with a new moon.? Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force during this weekend's spring tides than during the spring tides near apogee two weeks later. ?

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation, and for a day or so before and after most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full." The shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it is present or on which side it is.?

And while this weekend's moon will be ? as the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada suggests on page 101 ?- the "largest full moon of 2012," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.?

Or is it?

Moon illusion

When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.

So, a perigee moon, either rising in the East at sunset or dropping down in the West at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost seems that you could touch it. You can check out this effect for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset in your area here: http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/rs-one-year-us

And one final note: Saturday also marks the midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact moment between the March equinox and the June solstice occurs at 10:11 a.m. EDT May 5.? And this spring's big full moon seemingly places an exclamation point on this seasonal benchmark. Traditionally, the full moon of May is known as the "Flower Moon" since flowers are now abundant most everywhere. It is also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.

Happy moon watching!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

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Google Play About To Pass 15 Billion App Downloads? Pssht! It Did That Weeks Ago

Way to blow your own horn, Google. Yesterday a newspaper in the UK, the Independent, ran a short item about how Google was about to reach an app milestone -- 15 billion apps downloaded! So we reached out to Google to ask about this... and guess what? It already happened. A Google spokesperson, Gina Weakley Johnson, tells us that the milestone was passed "a few weeks ago."

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Lugar challenger hopes decades of ground-level work in GOP brings primary victory on Tuesday (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Religious Websites Are Worse for Your Computer than Porn Sites [Factoid]

"I have a virus." "Stop visiting all those porn sites!" Ha. Ha. But also pretty much every conversation about malware ever, right? Well, Symantec's 17th Internet Threat Security Report found another genre of sites that, on average is worse than porn: Religion. More »

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John Edwards Refused to Deny Affair on Paper; Rielle Hunter Wanted to Claim Abduction By Aliens

John Edwards denied his affair with Rielle Hunter to the American public but would not do so in a sworn affidavit, while his mistress wanted to claim she was abducted by aliens, according to the latest dispatches from his trial.

Mark Kornblau, who worked as John Edwards' spokesman and issued a strong denial that succeeded in keeping the Enquirer's story about Edwards' pregnant girlfriend from being picked up by the mainstream media, testified this week.

Kornblau said the story "would be a terrible outcome for Mrs. Edwards. I believed it to be untrue. Thirdly, it would be damaging to the campaign."

In an attempt to convince the Enquirer to not run the story, Kornblau had an affidavit drawn up in which Edwards denied the affair and denied paternity of Hunter's child.

But Edwards refused to sign it, he said.

In a later conversation with Kornblau, Edwards hinted that Hunter's pregnancy may have been the result of a fling with his aide, Andrew Young.

Edwards is charged with violating campaign finance laws by using more than $1 million from wealthy donors to hide his pregnant girlfriend.

He could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Edwards' former "body man" John Davis told the court he was surprised when Hunter came to his hotel room to tell him that she and Edwards were "very much in love," and that the presidential candidate pulled him aside to say Hunter was "crazy."

The visit from Hunter came on February 5, 2007.

Hunter had already been dismissed from the campaign at the insistence of Edwards' suspicious wife Elizabeth, so Davis was surprised when he ran into Hunter in an elevator and that she got off on his boss' floor.

"I would have preferred not to have seen her… I was concerned why she was there… I was suspicious they had maintained a relationship," Davis said.

After Hunter got off the elevator, Davis went to his room and called his wife to say he had seen Hunter, when there was a knock on his door.

He opened the door to find Hunter.

"She told me she and John Edwards were very much in love and he (Edwards) was concerned that I had seen her," Davis testified. "I told her it was not my business... and I asked her to leave."

He said he then called his wife back and said, "You are really not going to believe this."

Two days later the campaign was about to leave Detroit when Edwards called Davis into a room.

"He asked if I had run in to Miss Hunter. He (Edwards) told me she came to his room and told him she was going to go on Inside Edition or Access Hollywood to talk about her work for him. He told me she was crazy and to make sure she didn't contact him," Davis told the court.

"He denied there was an affair. He brought it up proactively," Davis said. The aide did not tell Edwards about Hunter's confession to him.

The aide said that he became aware that the relationship was continuing because Edwards would sometimes borrow his phone and keep it for a long time.

On one occasion, Davis returned to Edwards' room to get his phone back, but could hear Edwards and Hunter talking on the phone.

"I heard Rielle Hunter on the speaker phone. I recognized her voice. I heard Mr. Edwards ask if she was showing yet," Davis testified.

He also told the court that in fall of 2007 Edwards gave him a wrapped package and asked him to hold it. After several weeks, Edwards told him to get rid of the package, but Davis said with a smile that he did not get rid of it.

"I was very interested in what was in that package. I opened it up and inside the package was a telephone," Davis said. It was later confiscated by investigators.

Much of the testimony appears to show that Edwards' campaign was involved in the cover up of the affair.

The courtroom was riveted on Wednesday by testimony about Elizabeth Edwards' distraught reaction to the National Enquirer story in October 2007 that her husband was having an affair.

She confronted her husband in an airport parking lot, collapsing a heap, then tearing off her shirt and bra.

That testimony sent daughter Cate Edwards out of the courtroom in tears. But the subtler part of the testimony was apparently to show that Edwards' campaign was involved.

Christina Reynolds, former research director for Edwards campaign, told the court that after the Enquirer story came out the campaign had a conversation with Hunter about issuing a denial.

Hunter's response, Reynolds said, was that she wanted to release a flip comment that she had been "abducted by aliens."

"My concern was that if (she) was hedging on issuing a straight denial, we wouldn't know what she would do," Reynolds testified.

The prosecutor asked what would have happened if the story had grown, and Reynolds replied, "I don't think it would have been good. I think it would have been very bad for the campaign."

Hunter eventually issued a denial without mentioning aliens.

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