Moon watching
STLtoday.com
Tuesday, March 15
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The moon will put on a show as it rises over the eastern horizon on Saturday; romantics, amateur astronomers and photographers will be out to see the largest full moon in 20 years.
David Ritchey, associate director of the James S. McDonnell Planetarium at the St. Louis Science Center, said the big moon is due to the coinciding of two regular events — a full moon and its nearness to Earth.
Saturday, the close pass and the full moon happen on the same day for the first time in two decades.
A full moon appears once a month. The moon on average is 240,000 miles from Earth, but once a month, it's only 220,000 miles away.
That 20,000 miles isn't much in context of a cosmos measured in light years, Ritchey said, but it's still a chance to see the moon at its best and brightest. The National Weather Service is predicting a partly cloudy sky and no rain or snow — but this is still St. Louis.
"When the moon rises in the east, it looks big, then by midnight overhead, it doesn't seem anywhere as big as first rising," Ritchey said. "That's an optical illusion.
"Over the horizon, you're seeing the moon in reference with houses, trees telephone poles, buildings. But it's the same size whenever you see it."
See a calendar of the March moon's phases at alturl.com/ivdjq
TRAIL NOTES
• Maxine Stone, author of "Missouri's Wild Mushrooms — A Guide To Hunting, Identifying, and Cooking the State's Most Common Mushrooms," will speak and sign her book from 1 to 3 p.m. March 26 at the Powder Valley Nature Center, 11715 Cragwold Road in Kirkwood. That's at the northeast intersection of Interstates 44 and 270.
She'll talk about what to know to be ready for the spring mushroom season.
Stone is former president and currently a board member of the Missouri Mycological Society.
The book will be on sale for $14.
Reservations are required. Call 314-301-1500.
. Click Here to Read More.
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