Friday evening the whole planet was struck with the size and brightness of the full moon which rose so clearly in the sky yesterday night witnessing two major astronomical events.

The brightest and the biggest moon rose yesterday night and the planet Mars was closest to the earth, sky gazers said that it was visible to the naked eye like an orange colored star next to the moon.

The full moon, which rose from the east was 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter compared to the other full moons of the year.

On an average, a moon is 238,855 miles away from Earth but last night it was only 221,577 miles away from our planet, thus the closet perigee of the moon for this year. Perigee is the point when the moon gets closest to Earth during it orbit around the planet.



It is only once or twice in a year that perigee coincides with a full moon, making the moon the biggest and the brightest. In a remarkable coincidence, even Mars was in the opposite direction to the sun, thus making it closest to Earth.

Picture: The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=hm&name=A4perige