Why has the moon been so bright?

You've probably noticed the moon has been extremely bright the last few days, but why?

Basically, the moon is at its closest point to earth this week making the moon appear much larger and much brighter than at other times of the year.

Want to impress your friends and colleagues at work? Throw this word at them: perigee. That's the term for when the moon is closest to the earth. And, if that did not do the trick, how about aphelion? This also happens this time of year and is actually when the earth is closest to the sun. Yeah, I said closest which may be the bigggest irony in nature since it is currently winter in the northern hemisphere.

Now that the moon is in its waning phase, it will get less and less bright each night but was shining bright through a few clouds early this morning.

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