The year 2010’s biggest full moon came out in the east one evening in January. This time, it showed up with a bright partner, Mars. This year’s full moon was baptized as the wolf moon based on the tradition of Native Americans, which associate the said full moon with “wolves howling in the midwinter.”

The wolf moon of 2010 emerged 30% more brilliant and 14% bigger than any of the other full moons that will come out this year. This is because it was actually closer than usual to our planet. The moon was at its nearest perigee, attaining a 221,577 miles distance (or 356,593 km) from the Earth.

When it is farthest from the Earth, the moon is believed to be at apogee. Apogee and perigee normally happen once in every month; however, the moon’s shaky orbit signifies that the satellite’s precise distance at every one of those occasions varies throughout the year. In addition, the phase of the moon can also be diverse during each perigee and apogee.

Marc Jobin, an astronomer at the Montréal Planetarium, stated that “January had the biggest full moon of 2010” because it concurred with the particular time when the full moon came out at the same instance that it is at perigee.

As if in an astonishing stroke of chance, Mars was also in opposition so that the sun rested in the southwest and Mars ascended in the northeast. Around opposition, the one that becomes closest to the Earth is the red planet. This year, Mars swayed in at some 61 million miles (98 million km) on January 27th, and it still came into view amazingly bright in the course of the sky show.

Seen through the naked eye, it appeared as a bright orange star that was planted beside the full moon. Since this strangely close perigee occurred during a full moon, it was expected to have an effect on the Earth’s tides.