milonic said:

I live in the middle of nowhere so the Moon's cycles are something I get to see vividly and get to use from time to time so I get to know about its cycles, timings and what not.

However, this cycle I've seen something very odd - I first saw the Moon today at around 11am - nothing wrong with that I thought, happens quite often that the moon is there in the day along with the sun. BUT, this cycle is VERY different in that the Moon is still in the sky at 00:40 in the morning, some 12 hours later - I HAVE NEVER, EVER known this to happen before.

Anybody know what is going on with the Moon at the moment?

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milonic said:

yeah, that all says it's going to be closer than it is normally but nothing about it being in the sky for longer than normal.

I'll dig a little deeper and see what I can find.

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Siliconwombat said:

hmmmm remeber reading an email bout the moon being closer than normal but snopes sorted out my questions. I believe when I got it, it was for sometime last October. as for up from 11am till past midnight. I Guess its possible but Im no astronomer... Course it possible you saw it at the end of one period of visibility and didnt notice it until it had come back up?

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Langers said:

Hmm, pretty interesting stuff. Apparently this period with the moon being at its closest point to Earth coincides with the tectonic activity in Japan. This has happened before with large earthquakes coinciding with this. They reckon it's because the moon's stronger gravitational forces mess up Earth and cause more earthquakes than normal. Pretty awesome, though I reckon it's the run up to the end of the world in 2012

Incidentally, if anyone gets a chance to watch the sci-fi film 'Moon', do it, preferably before 23/12/2012

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