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The following e-mail went around the Internet earlier this December (1999), supposedly from Diane Gambill, Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences, Southern Methodist University:
"This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec. 22nd, commonly called the first day of winter. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be superfluous. On December 21st, 1866 the Lakota took advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory. In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full moon, much more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors 133 years ago saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see this again." |
| Below are some photos Don took, outside, without a flash, on December 22, 1999 at 12:30 am, from our property. No headlights? Welllll, not quite, but close. Must not have been enough snow (smile). |
(Dec 24th, 1999) The moon and some clouds. Yep, it's big and bright alright! What's the red dot you ask? We figure it's probably just a passing UFO, no big deal or anything out here in the middle of nowhere, you know. |
(Dec 24th, 1999) Here is the front of the house and you can see part of the garage to the left. I'm sure the house lights played a trick on the camera's light sensor, so the photo is not nearly as bright as it actually was out there. |
(Dec 24th, 1999) Another one of the front, but more to the left so you can see the entrance to our house area. |
(Dec 24th, 1999) Here is a view of the back of the house, with the interior lights casting an orange glow onto the snow. |
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*** Menu of our photo web pages *** New Photos: (4-9-2000) 5-10-2000: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Welcome Page The Town of Calhan Some of Our Neighbors Our Property House Tour: (p1) (p2) The Barn The Tractor Excavation Work (p1) (p2) The Workshop Wind Projects Photos of Us (p1) Us (p2) Our Cats Cattle Drive Suns and Moons Moon on Dec. 22, 1999 Misc. Fun Fotos Winter of 99/00 Christmas 1999: (p1) (p2) (p3) Don Simmons Birthday 2000 The Java Applets you see on our web site (waving flag, lake effect and snow flakes) are provided by: 
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