Not EXACTLY Genealogy, but it IS historyand definitely a once in a lifetime happening........Shirley ------------------------------------------------------------------- A Full Moon that Has Not Been Seen in 133 Years. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a very special full moon this month that will be very interesting. Be sure to have your cameras ready on the 22nd of this month. *Full Moon on the Winter Solstice* For the first time in the life of anyone around today, we'll see a full moon occur on the Winter solstice, December 22nd, commonly called the first day of Winter. Since a full moon on the Winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger, making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly reforming. If the weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be superfluous. On December 21st, 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in Wyoming Territory. In layman's terms: It will be a super bright full moon, much more than the usual, AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors 133 years ago saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see this again.