Full wolf moon of '09, tonight Saturday January 10th

by Amy Judd | January 9, 2009 at 04:15 pm

3077 views | 44 Recommendations | 19 comments

The biggest full moon of 2009, called a Full Wolf Moon, can been seen tonight in the sky, this Saturday January 10th as long as the skies are clear and there are no clouds. Look for it at sunset, rising in the east, as this January full moon will be the biggest and brightest of this year.

The Earth, sun, and moon are bound together by gravity and the moon makes a complete trip around the earth every 29.5 days.

But the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon's apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.

The moon will appear to be about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons we may have seen, and as a result the tides will be higher, because the Earth's oceans are pulled by the moon's gravity.

There may be too many clouds in some places to see the moon clearly however as many areas are experiencing snow and rain and that will infringe on your ability to see it.

NASA is quite excited about the perigee moon, as you might expect: "You can read a newspaper, ride a bike, write a letter, and at the same time count the stars overhead." (With all due respect to NASA, we would suggest not doing all of those things at the same time.) And tonight's forecast for much of the Northeast is for snow, according to weather.com, so it may be too cloudy to see the moon there.

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Pythiian1

at 18:28 on January 10th, 2009

Cool! Thanks for the footage. It's quite cloudy where I am so can't see anything ... too bad.

321rule (not verified)

at 20:19 on January 10th, 2009

It's clear and the moon is shining so bright up here in northern Minnesota it's unbeleivable. There's even this enormous ring around it, they say it's from the light shining through ice crystals in the air.. Beautiful........

Amy Judd

at 20:28 on January 10th, 2009

Wonderful! We can't see it here - it's too cloudy...

JR-Photography

at 21:04 on January 10th, 2009

I shot this photo from off my back yard porch in Utah. © JR Photography

JR-Photography has contributed a photo to this story.

aelusive

at 21:05 on January 10th, 2009

Great find.

Zero

at 21:40 on January 10th, 2009

It was definitely brighter and larger than any other full moon I've seen; such a beautiful sight.

Zero has contributed a photo to this story.

Paschen

at 21:47 on January 10th, 2009

Time to take pictures.

Rahbysahn

at 23:51 on January 10th, 2009

Taken just after Moonrise, Sacramento Ca.

Rahbysahn has contributed a photo to this story.

Two2Travel

at 00:13 on January 11th, 2009

Just stepping out of the car after a day of fun in the city, the stunning moonrise caught my eye immediately, due to it's brightness. It is also the full moon which is the influence on my daughter going into labor, as most know, the delivery rooms are full on full moons! I had to get a few pictures of the event!

Two2Travel has contributed a photo to this story.

Laura Gibos (not verified)

at 00:38 on January 11th, 2009

Live in northern Alberta, and tonight there were not one but TWO rings, one around the moon, and the second sort of looped through the first, but not around the moon...awesome sight, and me with no camera at hand.

MariaP.

at 03:42 on January 11th, 2009

I went to the beach this evening (01.10.09) and had absolutely fantastic time watching the full Moon rising from the ocean while the Sun was getting down behind me. I took a lot of pictures (of course!:)) but I had little hope they will be any good. But then I came home and WOW - my little camera did it's magic! Of course, it's a lot of color noise, but still I am very happy with the result. These pelicans were trying to fly in straight line formation but the gust of wind kept breaking the formation so the birds were dancing in the air.

MariaP. has contributed a photo to this story.

thekreativelife

at 06:05 on January 11th, 2009

The full moon on January 9, 2009 was reported to be the biggest full moon of the year.

In the midwest United States it was so bright, you could see for quite a distance . . . it was like a muted version of the sun.

Quite spectacular!

thekreativelife has contributed a photo to this story.

luvlakesuperior (not verified)

at 07:46 on January 11th, 2009

This was taken around 9:00 in Northern Minnesota.

SuzyQJenn

at 07:53 on January 11th, 2009

The Perigee Moon; in which the moon is closer to the earth. Taken with a 30 second exposure but I had a feeling this was going to happen ~ it's too cloudy ~ going to try again tomorrow night.

SuzyQJenn has contributed a photo to this story.

lvclark

at 14:49 on January 11th, 2009

Very cold and a bit windy, but beautiful to witness.

lvclark has contributed a photo to this story.

dkdykstra

at 17:09 on January 11th, 2009

Taken with my phone, I shot this from northern Colorado at 5:00 AM from my car at a stop sign. Not ideal, but couldn't pass it up.

dkdykstra has contributed a photo to this story.

Barbara McPherson

at 17:49 on January 11th, 2009

I think there's still hope for this old planet when so many people are excited about the celestial.

Milieunet

at 23:05 on January 11th, 2009

Huuuuuoooouuuu !

sheryl short (not verified)

at 20:45 on February 2nd, 2009

Hi my name is sheryl I live in claremont new hampsire.

I took four photos of the wolf moon in the early am of janurary 11th

These photos were taken at a friends house in charlestown nh

The first picture was taken at 12:32am the second picture at 12:33am and the third at 12:33 and the forth taken at 12:39am.I have not yet downloaded these photosfrom my phone onto the computer yet but I will as soon as possible.

I have some questions about these photos They are very interesting.