Fwd: Supermoon and Buddha Poornima

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Sun, May 6, 2012 at 5:15 PM
Subject: Supermoon and Buddha Poornima
To:




The moon will be closest to the earth on Sunday than it will be on any other night in 2012 and will appear significantly larger.

The phenomenon, called supermoon, this year coincides with `Buddha Poornima' - the day the Buddha was born, attained nirvana, and died (Parinirvana).

On May 6 at 9.05 pm, the distance between the earth and the moon will be 3,56,955 km, the closest this year, and the angular size of the moon will be 0.5515 degrees.

It is very interesting to note that on May 6, the moon will set at western horizon a few minutes before sunrise and then it will rise again on the same evening about an hour after the sunset, Arvind Paranjpye, director of Mumbai-based Nehru Planetarium, said.