Tonight: Biggest, brightest full moon of the year

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If you get a chance, check out tonight's full moon. It will be closer to Earth than it's been since 1993 – 221,560 miles away, making it look 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than 2008's other full moons. The composite NASA photo above shows how different the size of the moon appears at perigee, the moon's closest point to the Earth, and apogee, its furthest position from us. From National Geographic:

"Typically we don't have the full moon phase and perigee (the position of an object at its least distance from Earth), coinciding at the same time, so that makes this event particularly special," said Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California…

"While high tides happen each month when the sun, Earth, and the moon are aligned, there is going to be an enhanced effect, with the moon being the closest it's been in more than a decade," said Ben Burress, staff astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California.

Sky Show Tonight: Bigges, Brightest Full Moon of 2008