Super Moon 2012 - or Is It SuperMoon?

Via wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supermoon_comparison.jpg

I have been a little tardy in getting to the subject of the "supermoon".   The United States Naval Observatory (USNO)   says that the full moon occurs on May 6, 2012 at 03:35:00 UTC.  Since Boston is currently at UTC minus 4 (Eastern Daylight Time), the full moon happened at 11:35 last night. 

Apparent Size Change

The distance change from average orbital radius to perigee (closest approach)  is about 6%.  The moon is not a point source when viewed from Earth so we see an apparent change in size  (about 6% in diameter and 12% in area).  (see image on right).   If a far away, "point source", like a star, got 6% closer to us, we would not see any size change - only a change in apparent brightness.

Apparent Brightness Change

In addition, light from each location, or point,  on the moon spreads out in all directions. Since the light from each point travels a shorter distance to earth, the famous inverse square law says that detector (eye) would receive about 12% more light,  from each point on the moon, due to the change in distance. With an imaging detector like the eye, or a camera. each point on the film or retina receives more light independent of the size of the moon.  This change is unlikely to be perceived  as a big change brightness of the moon but it may add to the overall effect of a "super moon" , or supermoon.   

Google Doodle: Nicolas Steno friend of Nicolaes Witsen

Google Doodle - 1/11/2012

Today's Google doodle marks the birthday of Nicolas Steno,  a physician and scientist in the early Age of Enlightenment.  He made contributions to geology, crystallography and anatomy.   He knew several scientific luminaries of the age including the cartographer and Mayor of Amsterdam,  Nicolaes Witsen.   At the University of Copenhagen, he met Thomas Bartholin, discoverer of the lymphatic system and the father of  Caspar Junior who described Bartholin's glands, two glands located slightly posterior and to the left and right of the opening of the vagina. 

Steno tried organized religion and found it wanting. Ironically, he may land up being made a saint by a large religious organization.

Third Anniversary of Chemo - Gregor Mendel - Google Doodle

 Today is the "official" third  anniversary of the end my chemo in 2008 - and 3.5 years from surgery.   To quote Galileo  - from the Italian - "E pur si muove"  ("And yet, it moves" -  in this case time).

I found peas on Google's home page this morning.    Here's what it looked like.

the "Google doodle" commemorates the birth of Gregor Mendel,  father of modern genetics.   Mendel did most of his work with pea plants and documented the patterns and statistics of traits he observed (phenotypes) based on their parental traits. From these observations, he inferred what is known now as the Laws of Mendelian Inheritance.  He observed that traits are not blends of parental ones but specific characteristics  (either there or not with specific frequencies).  He posited that factors for each trait are inherited from each parent but separately (segregation).  And that traits are not inherited as a group but  independently (independent assortment).   As the microscopic and molecular aspects of genetics where later elucidated,  the mechanisms for Mendel's laws became apparent.  We now know that many phenotypes are transmitted in much more complex ways (non-Mendelian inheritance).