Jaunted

Tags: Moon Travel / Space Tourism / Space Travel / → All Tags

Perigee Moon Alert: If You're Outside Tonight, Look Up

Here's a ray of light in an otherwise dark time of year. Tonight, billions of people around the world will witness a perigee Moon, a once or twice a year phenomena that results in the biggest, brightest full Moon the lunar cycle. As the Moon men of NASA point out, a perigee Moon is as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than "lesser moons" because it's about 50,000 kilometers closer to the earth than when it's at its apogee. The result is a big, beautiful moon that casts an otherworldly glow over the earth, bright enough to "read a newspaper, ride a bike, write a letter, and at the same time count the stars overhead."

Unlike NASA, we don't actually recommend you count stars while riding your bike, but you ought to make a point of getting outside at some point tonight and looking up in the sky. Find the night setting on your digital camera and see what kind of photos you can get, as they might make a good desktop wallpaper. The weather forecast calls for snow tonight in many parts of the U.S., which might obscure the moonlight, but I'm sure plenty of people will do a double take at the sky as they stumble out of the bars, pausing for a moment to gaze at the celestial show.

[Photo: NASA]

Related Stories:
· Biggest Full Moon of the Year, Take 2 [NASA]
· Tonight's Full Moon Closest, Brightest of the Year [The Ledger-Enquirer]
· Moon Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: India Travel / Moon Travel / → All Tags

Theen, Dho, Ek... Blastoff!

If its burgeoning middle class, booming technology sector and superior cuisine didn't prove it, India is hammering home its position on top of the world stage by sending its first rocket to the moon today.

But don't prepare for a "One small step" speech in Hindi just yet. The ship, called Chandrayaan-1, is unmanned and intended to be the first lunar craft to create a comprehensive map of the moon, whereas other countries' past missions focused on looking only at specific regions.

If all goes well, India will try to execute a manned moon mission by 2015, after which it plans to establish a colony on the inhospitable giant rock. Space hotel, anyone?

Related Stories:
· India Goes to the Moon [Asia Times]
· Space Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: People's Daily]