As we've mentioned earlier, since the time between full Moons is 29 days, this was one of those years that February had no full moon. The 28-day month started about 18 hours (MST) after the second full moon of January on January 31. Then, the first of two full moons in March happened March 1st. Last Saturday, March 31, March had its second full moon. So, to wrap up, two full moons in January, none in February and two full moons in April.

We'll get back to one full moon per month now, with our next bright night on April 29. By the way, we've been told that some of these full moons are "super" full moons. Since the moon does not orbit Earth in a perfect circle, sometimes it is closer than normal (at perigee) during the full moon - a Super moon. Well, when the full moon happens when the moon is farther away (apogee), it's now being called a "micro" full moon by some folks. That will happen in July, apparently.

The term "super moon" is fairly recent and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson hates it. He compares it to pizza sizes. Using his pizza analogy, a 14-inch pizza would be a micro moon, a 15-inch pizza would be a regular sized moon and a 16-inch pizza would be a super moon. It's a very slight difference.

No matter what you label it, a full moon is still quite a sight. And when it disappears behind the mountains, you definitely notice that it's gone.

moonset march 31
Good night, moon. (Mike Daniels, Townsquare Media)
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