That means if the weather holds in your area you can go outside and you will see the largest moon of the year. The event has a fancy technical name – a “perigee-syzygy,” but us common folk simply call it a “supermoon.” A supermoon occurs when a full moon happens within 12 hours of the lunar perigee. The perigee is the point when the moon is closest to the Earth.

You don’t have to fear that the moon being so close to the Earth will cause earthquakes or volcanoes. The worst we will experience is that people in the coastal areas will see a lower and higher tides than usual. Be on the lookout for the giant moon this weekend.

[via Space.com]

For $99.95 you get both the globe and Sky & Telescope’s detailed Moon Guide. That’s a pretty good price for such an accurate Death Star, I mean Moon globe.

[via Sky and Telescope via geekosystem]

The video was released this week but was actually filmed back in January. It begins in an impact basin known as Mare Orientale. That impact basin is massive at 560 miles wide. To capture the footage, NASA used one of the Grail spacecraft and the camera it’s equipped with called the MoonKAM.

The coolest thing about that camera is that NASA will allow students on earth to snap pictures the lunar surface as part of a project for education. MoonKAM is the first camera ever sent on a NASA probe that is completely dedicated to educational use. Camera control will be given to Middle School students starting in March.

You can check out the video above ore on the official NASA page here.

Armstrong apparently denied ever selling or giving space rock to anyone. The piece of rock in question is apparently inside a dome made of acrylic meant to be a paperweight and has been authenticated as real. NASA maintains that any moon rocks were brought back from Apollo missions and therefore are property of the government. Davis contacted someone at NASA to ask for help selling the rock to raise money for a sick child.

She is said to have acknowledged that the rock couldn’t be sold legitimately and hinted at selling it on the black market. When Davis went to a restaurant, in southern California to compete the sale, NASA’s inspector general and law enforcement swooped in and seized the rock and scared Davis so badly she apparently lost control of her bladder. Davis says the rock is her property and that she ended up with bruises on her body from being held by the police. I am sure a lawsuit in the case is coming soon. Davis was not arrested, but wasn’t allowed to keep the rock either.

[via CSMonitor]

The Moon Shine is definitely an interesting concept for a wall clock that draws inspiration from the moon. Actually, it’s definitely more than just a clock. There’s also a light behind the clock that depicts the different phases of the moon as time passes throughout the night.

It was also designed to be quite the energy saver. The Moon Shine clock concept actually has a built-in timer (which you set yourself, of course) for when you want the light to be turned on. It will gradually change its “phase” before shutting off completely (turning into the new moon), depending on the duration that you’ve set earlier using the timer.

The Moon Shine was designed by Yong-min Lee who probably spent a lot of time staring up at the moon before going to the drawing board to work on this design.

[via Yanko Design]

The photos cover Apollo missions 17, 12, and 14 and show the descent stages for the missions that landed the astronauts on the moon along with the trails left from the astronauts moving around on the surface and from the LRV they drove around. You can even see where the American flag was left behind on the surface of the moon.

Of course, there is something new for the conspiracy nuts to latch on to. The pair of photos for each site don’t overlay exactly. The reasons for this is the angle they were taken at and the change in light on the moon’s surface.

The photos are very cool and you can check out a video explaining the photos below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Since the moon doesn’t spin, this is the only side we ever see. The “dark side” – correctly called the “far side” – of the moon is very different from the near side though. The far side of the moon is roughly 1.5 miles higher than the near side and it has mountains and valleys while the near side is mostly smooth.

Scientists and astronomers have often wondered why the two sides of the moon are so vastly differently. A new computer simulation has given way to the theory that our moon may in fact be the result of the collision of the moon with a much smaller moon about 750 miles in diameter early in the formation of our solar system. The thought is that the far side of the moon is what remains of the crust of the smaller moon that crashed into it, and that the front side is what remains of the larger moon.

[via MSNBC]

The cave was discovered by an instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The cave is near the moons equator and is thought to be 1.7km long and 120-meters wide. The location is near the Oceanus Procellarum that could be a suitable location for a base on the moon for future mission into space.

The cool part is that the underground temperature is thought to be in the area of -20°C all the time and the walls of the cave are thick enough to protect from micro meteors, radiation and other things that could harm astronauts. The cave is thought to be a lava tube along the lines of those we see on Earth.

P.S.: The image here isn’t the actual cave and is from Projectswordtoys.blogspot.com.

[via Silicon India]

An artist named Sue Corke is creating a series of prints of lunar photos and the photos are scratch and sniff. She figures that since none of us will actually ever go to the moon, she would recreate the scent to fool the brain in to thinking of the moon each time we smell a burning match. Apparently, astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr. was involved in crafting the scent and NASA knows that the moon smells of burnt gunpowder.

The smell of a burnt match always makes me think of fireworks. Corke said, “I like the idea of creating a false memory. Smell, place and memory are very closely linked. No one who sniffs our postcard from the moon is ever likely to go there. Yet now I hope this is a smell, similar to a freshly struck match, which will always remind them of it.”

The body and toe of the shoes also feature collages of pictures that Aldrin himself shot while he was on lunar missions. Less notable artsy-fartsy touches on the shoe include the “sleek midnight black” color of the shoe itself, which “physically represents the infinite darkness and unseen depths of space” and the light and dark swooshes that mimic the “light and dark side of the moon”. So basically black and black and white.

The Rocket Hero Mavrk Mid 2 will be available in select Nike 6.0 retailers starting January 1 for $85 (USD). Moon rock not included.

[via freshness and ESPN BMX Blog]

Just as America’s Army was developed to simulate the Army experience without all that pesky paperwork and obedience, NASA’s game is set so simulate the astronaut experience. Astronaut‘s aim is to expose a new generation to the intelligence and technology that the space program is built upon, and perhaps in doing so, recruit tomorrow’s engineers and astronauts.

The game is designed around mission-based play that promises to expose gamers to all the challenges of space exploration, just without the floating around. Personally, I could do without that anyway… but that may mean I’m not the target demographic!

[EDGE via Massively]

Problem is, the robot’s lithium ion batteries might succumb to the Moon’s nighttime temperature, which according to Inhabitat can be as low as -240°F (-151°C). Fortunately Whittaker and company still have more than a year to go to figure out a way to prevent the rover from suffering robotic hypothermia.

The rover has also been entered in Google’s $30 million (USD) Lunar X Prize, a challenge to build a robot that will – well whaddaya know – “safely land on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth.” Aside from the solar panels, the rover is also equipped with a total of 8 motors, 2 in the hub of each wheel, a radiator (I think it’s not in the picture above).

I wish Dr. Whittaker and his collaborators at Astrobiotic Technology good luck. Also Dr. Whittaker, I suggest you contact the folks at College Humor; I hear they’re selling something that might be able to help protect the batteries from the cold.

[via Popular Science]

The guys over at Watchluxus have turned me on to this amazingly intricate mechanical device which demonstrates the workings of our the Solar System in unbelievable detail. Richard Mille’s Planetarium-Tellurium provides a glimpse into the exact positions of the Earth, Venus, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon.

While it might not include all of the planets, and the Earth has been enlarged for aesthetic reasons, it’s capable of telling viewers an astounding amount of information including the current axis of the Earth, it’s position relative to the Sun, the rotation of the Moon, as well as the positions of Venus and Mercury among other things. It’s also an extremely sophisticated clock and perpetual calendar, which can even tell the current signs of the Zodiac.

Mille enlisted the counsel of a renowned astronomer-physicist to help with all of the calculations that were needed in order to accurately convert these movements into a mechanical system. To put the precision into perspective, the least precise calculation is the current axis of the Earth, which can get off by plus or minus 1° every 7.7 years. Most of the other calculations are far more stable, like the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, which should be accurate within 1° for up to 2 million years!

From what I’ve been able to glean, Mille actually plans on producing these clocks for purchase, although I haven’t been able to find out any details on that yet. Given the insane amount of detail and fine craftsmanship, I’d expect that you’d be able to buy a really nice car or a small condo for less than what these will ultimately sell for.

These Fuwarito lamps look like the earth and the moon, but are just simple helium-filled mylar balloons with an LED built into the bottom. Each light comes with a two cans of helium gas and weighted base to keep them from floating away. Turn the lights off, and you’ll feel like you’re floating around the galaxy with these hovering planetary bodies. They can be found at Japanese retailer ASCII for ¥3,343 each (about $27 USD.)

All you need to do is add one of those laser star projectors to complete the effect.

The moon phase projector from Banpresto can project a 2 foot diameter moon image from about 6 feet away. The projector gradually changes between all of the lunar phases over the course of about an hour.

The projector is supposed to sell for ¥3675 (appx. $31 USD), but I haven’t found a retailer who’s carrying these yet. You might want to check with Himeya Shop, since they import other Banpresto lighting products.