Join the Engadget HD Podcast live on Ustream at 5:30PM ET

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Supermoon Saturday: Why it's the biggest, brightest of 2012 (+video)

Supermoon Saturday: It's also called the 'Flower Moon,' and 'Milk Moon.' The 'supermoon' will be only 221,802 miles from Earth, the closest to our planet this year.

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth ? a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away.?

Skip to next paragraph Another "super-Moon" is in the offing. The perigee full Moon in May will be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2012.

The effect of this coincidence is a stunning skywatching sight called the "supermoon."

In fact, this month's perigee is the closest of any perigee in 2012 (they vary by about 3 percent, because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular). The result will be a 16 percent brighter-than-average full moon accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week.

In contrast, later this year, on Nov. 28, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest point from Earth. [Amazing Supermoon Photos from 2011]

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

Spring tides

Every month, "spring" tides occur when the moon is full and new. The word "spring," in this case, is derived from the German springen, to "spring up," and is not ? as is often mistaken ? a reference to the spring season. At these times the moon and sun form a line with Earth, so their tidal effects add together.? The sun, because of its distance, exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.

"Neap" tides, on the other hand, occur at those times when the moon is at first and last quarter and work at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times, tides are weak.

Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. During the supermoon on Saturday, the moon will be 12.2 percent closer at perigee than it will be two weeks later at apogee, which will nearly coincide with a new moon.? Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force during this weekend's spring tides than during the spring tides near apogee two weeks later. ?

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation, and for a day or so before and after most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full." The shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it is present or on which side it is.?

And while this weekend's moon will be ? as the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada suggests on page 101 ?- the "largest full moon of 2012," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.?

Or is it?

Moon illusion

When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.

So, a perigee moon, either rising in the East at sunset or dropping down in the West at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost seems that you could touch it. You can check out this effect for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset in your area here: http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/rs-one-year-us

And one final note: Saturday also marks the midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact moment between the March equinox and the June solstice occurs at 10:11 a.m. EDT May 5.? And this spring's big full moon seemingly places an exclamation point on this seasonal benchmark. Traditionally, the full moon of May is known as the "Flower Moon" since flowers are now abundant most everywhere. It is also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.

Happy moon watching!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

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DJ Platform Dubset Becomes Thefuture.fm, Doubles User Base To 100K

Naming your company Thefuture.fm is kind of a bold move. Sure, it's fun at first, but if things go badly, you're setting yourself up for lots of bad puns ("No future for Thefuture.fm," etc.). Luckily, the site seems to be off to a good start. Founder and CEO David Stein says the service first launched about eight months ago as Dubset, which he now describes as a beta test. After refining and iterating on that initial version, the site relaunched on April 25 under its current, awesomer name. In the first three days after the launch, Thefuture.fm claims to have doubled its user base to more than 100,000.

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94% Marley

All Critics (80) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (5)

Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary does what the artist usually did: When in doubt, return to the beat.

Macdonald supplies some interesting and novel details about the musician's life and art, though the movie's narrative arc and documentary methods are totally predictable.

Bob Marley wrote the same song about 8,000 times, and the documentary "Marley" makes sure to include each version.

This is a life story worth telling, and "Marley" does it much justice. Marley may or may not have been perfect, but he was certainly fascinating.

It's hard to imagine audiences who don't know much about the man sticking around for more than a few minutes of this. And they're the ones who need to know about him most of all.

The movie has enormous force - because it's about a genius, yes, but even more so because of the intelligence, passion and wit of the people who knew Marley.

For a movie this long, it's too bad there isn't more footage of Marley in performance, joyously bringing music to the world.

...likely as close as we'll ever come to a definitive film biography of this gnomic figure.

Macdonald effectively lets the talking heads and the music explain the longevity of Marley's appeal.

Recounts a short life that seemed to straddle worlds and eras, and perhaps the definitive portrait will never be filmed or written. Until it is, though, there's always the music.

A truly human portrait of an extraordinary life.

Marley is a terrific documentary. It goes beyond one figure, and captures the essence of life itself. The film is as infectious and spiritual as one of his songs.

Good documentaries make us want to know more about their subject. But great ones like Marley don't need to.

It's certainly comprehensive, even if -- at two and a half hours long -- not exactly concise.

If you'd asked me a month ago how Marley had died, I might have cluelessly suggested a drug overdose.

Chronicles the life and times of the first musical superstar from the third world to gain a global audience, with the reggae singer's posthumous Legend album selling some 25 million copies.

In the end, it's just good, comprehensive storytelling, a film that justifies the legend rather than hypes it.

Gradually, the dreadlocks, the music and the cloud of ganja smoke come together to form as recognisable an image as that of the equally short-lived Che Guevara.

The film never shows us Marley in a complete performance. It's hard to understand the magic of a man whose most awesome moments are reduced to edited snippets.

It smartly captures his dynamic personality both through the words of those who knew him, and more importantly, through his enduring music.

Marley finally gives the world an authoritative, nonhagiographic survey of Marley's life.

This is an appropriately exhaustive study of the man and his music, its only failing is the absence of a decent political analysis of Rastafari and the beliefs that informed Marley to the end of his life.

It's a meticulously researched, consistently interesting documentary about superstar Bob Marley - and it makes two-and-a-half hours pass by in a flash.

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I Lost All My Money Betting On the Windows Phone Horse [Video]

True story: I bet on Windows Phone yesterday and lost. Actually, I bet on a horse named Hansen, a Kentucky Derby contender sponsored by Windows Phone. Hansen turned out to be a disappointing loser. More »

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Rubio Dodges Veep Talk (TIME)

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Toshiba Excite 10 LE initial walkthrough

You want thin, yet fully featured? Then you need to look at the Toshiba Excite 10 LE. It has decent, but not breath-taking specs -- OMAP dual-core 4430 at 1.2GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 10.1-inch IPS display at 1280x800, Android 4.0 and all the ports and slots you'd even want. The screen on the Excite is pretty nice too. I noticed great viewing angles, and it's really nice and bright. Toss in a magnesium back with a modern textured feel, and it's sounding like a nice piece of gear. 

But all that pales when you realize how oh-my-God thin it is. 7.7mm to be exact, or one-tenth of a millimeter thinner that the HTC One S. It's amazing. In fact, when you first pick it up you do a double-take, simply because it is so thin and light (535 grams). It's beyond impressive. 

I'm putting this one through the paces. I use the heck out of a tablet, even though for the longest time I didn't think I would. If it can be broken, I will break it. If it can be crashed, I will crash it. If it performs great, I will love it. Keep an eye out for a full review, but I wanted everyone to have a quick look at the new sexy. Hit the break for a video and some pictures.

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