What happened
ON DECEMBER 22, 1999?

The first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, December
22 (commonly called the  first day of winter) in this century.  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 appeared 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 was the closest perigee of the
Moon of the year, since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming.  If the
weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you live, it is believed
that even car headlights would be superfluous.

On December 21, 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination of
occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the
Wyoming Territory.

In layperson's terms it was a super bright full moon, much more than the
usual AND it hadn'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. I hope someone else might find this interesting!
Remember this happened December 22, 1999.....

Bruce L. Jones
The Desert Hostage
The Mojave Desert - The Geographic Center of Nowhere