Keep Doing In Remembrance... United... Forever
So a question? Is there always a full moon on Nisan 14?
Answer (Containing more astronomy than you ever wanted to know...): The beginning of a month on the Jewish calendar starts with the visual new moon. Therefore Nisan 14, would be 14 days after the new moon (when the moon visually appears new). (Note that Nisan is the first month of the Jewish calendar, and the days start at sunset... Therefore it would be the 14th day of the Jewish Year). From one Full Moon to the next, the number of days in one lunation can vary between 29.272 and 29.833 days. taking half of this takes us to 14.6 days to 14.9 days... (The true Full Moon may differ from this by up to about 14.5 hours, due to the normal irregularity in the Moon's Keplerian orbit, and due to the periodic perturbations on that Keplerian orbit by the Sun, the equatorial bulge of Earth, and nearby planets). Therefore the actual day of the memorial may not be exactly the day of the full moon where you are (but its so close it will look full).
Another odd fact: The Jewish calendar is on a 19 year cycle... therefore, memorial dates should be on the same day every 19 years. This is what I'm understanding at least... its confusing, but it is confusing only because we go off a solar calendar (365 1/4 days in a year... 12 months) and the Jewish calendar is lunar (12.4 lunar months)
Want to hurt your head... read this. That’s also why we can have "once in a blue moon."
Does the moon always the same on a full moon? No actually it can look very different because of the moon being either at the Perigee and Apogee of its orbit. Interested? Learn More.
Comments
We had a wonderful Memorial this year. As always.:) 202 in attendance. Doubling our number of publishers.:) And, funny you put up a picture of the moon. Mom and I were talking about how gorgeous the moon always is today.:)
Posted by: Kristen | April 12, 2006 10:45 PM
ok, so i think you should quit NASA and become a photographer. or you could be a photographer for NASA and go to space to take pix for them :)
that's a good pic of the moon. i can never get a pic of the moon to turn out that good :(
Posted by: kathryn | April 12, 2006 10:55 PM
great memorial at the sign language congregation. We had 62 in attendance about 12 deaf studies or calls. Very exciting!
Posted by: Autumn | April 13, 2006 08:33 AM
So, that probably means most "full" moons we see aren't actually a 100% full moon. More like 99% full or something. Way to take the fun out of it Myers. You are a glass half empty kind of guy aren't you.
Posted by: Tre | April 13, 2006 09:19 AM
Or more like a glass 49.76345% empty kind of guy.
Posted by: Tre | April 13, 2006 09:30 AM
No you dont get it tre... its just the date that a calendar will say is the full moon may be a day off... i'm explaining why.
And the glass is completly full... there are water molecules floating even up the water...
(so i'm a positive engineer...get to the details... and look at the positive side ;) )
And we had 240.. pretty good I thought for an 8:30 meeting.
Posted by: itzjerm | April 13, 2006 09:33 AM
If a full moon occurs every 29.272-29.833 days, I guess somewhere on the calendar they mark 29 or 30 days between full moons. Otherwise we would slowly get off track with our full moon cycle.
Also, since it occurs every 29.272-29.833 days, wouldn't that mean that even if they mark the day right (as close as they can), that they will still be a fraction of a day off (depending on where you live)? So, what we see isn't a full moon but for someone 10 time zones over on the same day will see the moon in it true 100% fullness.
Posted by: Tre | April 13, 2006 09:51 AM
We had 115 at ours with an 8:30 time (93 publishers)....
Posted by: Amber | April 13, 2006 10:01 AM
Well, it was all quite interesting:) Thanks for the science lesson.:)Now we know right? So, I think we should go by the Jewish calendar..since it's more accurate ya know? So who makes up the Sanhedrin we run to tell we saw the first sliver of the moon??
Posted by: kristen | April 13, 2006 10:09 AM
The spanish had 158 we are 50 publishers, so we were very excited!
Posted by: Ana | April 13, 2006 11:54 AM
We have around 110 publishers so the 240 was great for late...
And Tre... now you're turning into the half empty guy... or 50.272% empty guy... man.. you a hypocrit?
so based on this change in thought by Tre... looks like he must be the sanhedrian...
We'll let ya know when we see that first sliver Tre..
ha ... jk
(btw you can look at those tables and see exactly when its 100% ... sounds like a reason for a party...
a 100% full moon party... wait that doesnt sound right...
Posted by: itzjerm | April 13, 2006 12:52 PM
Hey Tre..so was the sweet tea at chili's half full or half empty?? haha. I'm sure Lyns gave ya good service. So you know..all could come visit ME at Chili's on Fridays (and Sat lunch)..you know..support me. haha. j/k
And, the moon party..think if we turned it into.."look at the beautiful creation of Jehovah" it wouldn't be like..Moon worship. ;)
Posted by: kristen | April 13, 2006 01:21 PM
Interesting debate. We had 236 at ours. Lots of studies and visitors! Lots of things to reflect on .. including thanksgiving to Jehovah for a gorgeous FULL moon last night! :-)
Posted by: Ashlee | April 13, 2006 02:25 PM
Uh...(head hurting)...yeah...(brain cells burning)...OK...(steam issuing from ears)...thanks for the "spiritual astronomy" lesson Jer...You the man!...
=)-o22
Posted by: Otutu Uju Kamalu | April 13, 2006 03:23 PM
we had 195 at ours @ 7:30(92 publishers)
Posted by: mark | April 14, 2006 09:08 AM
Hah, I told you... about the moon thing... hey jerm, your page is not remembering personal info
Posted by: toopriddy | April 17, 2006 06:40 PM
This is good news! Keep up the good work Jerm!
Posted by: Cortney Bone | April 19, 2006 01:57 PM