SPACE: Full Moon Saturday will be “biggest” of year

The “biggest” Full Moon of this year will occur this Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 11:34 p.m. On Saturday, the Moon will be closest to the Earth in its orbit, which is called the “perigee,” and thus appear ever so slightly larger to viewers on Earth. At a distance of 221,802 miles from Earth, this marks the closest approach to us as the Moon orbits around the Earth in an elliptical path, not an exact circle. NASA says the Moon will appear as much as 14% bigger at this perigee and also look as much as 30% brighter than other Full Moons of 2012. This slight difference in distance does not lead to any significant impacts on Earth (like extreme tidal events or earthquakes, as some legends claim). In most places, perigean tides on Earth will only be an inch or two higher than usual, which is minimal, according to NASA.