EXTRA MOONLIGHT: No, it wasn't your imagination. The full Moon of Jan. 11th really was extra bright. Dr. Elmar Schmidt of the SRH University of Applied Sciences in Heidelberg, Germany, used an absolutely-calibrated photometer to precisely measure the moonlight and found it more than 50% brighter than that of a typical full Moon. This made it possible, for example, to skate the frozen canals of the Netherlands long after dark:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod200...tro2v4n7jh2e81

"The bright moonlight was perfect for skating," says Jan Koeman of Oosterschenge. "I photographed the skaters using my Nikon D300--no flash required."

Three factors contributed to the Moon's extraordinary brightness:

1. The Moon was at perigee, the side of the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to Earth.

2. The Earth-Moon system was near perihelion, the side of Earth's elliptical orbit closest to the sun. Extra sunlight increased the reflected luminosity of the Moon.

3. The Sun-Earth-Moon trio were almost perfectly aligned. This triggered a strong opposition effect--an intense brightening of the lunar surface caused by the temporary elimination of normal shadows.

Schmidt details the relative contributions of each factor in his full report.