We often hear about reports that the Full Moon is the largest. We often think folks only care about things that are big. This weekend’s full moon, the Sailor’s Moon, will be smaller than we are accustomed.

This weekend’s full moon, in the zodiacal constellation Aquarius, is far away. Astronomers report that the moon is in apogee. It is at that part of its orbit when it is most distant from the earth.

Apogee was Thursday. At that time the moon was 252,118 miles away and tonight it is only slightly closer.

The moon’s orbit around the earth is eliptical. On August 10, the new moon was in perigee or 222,499 miles away. Between apogee and perigee the moon varied in distance this month by almost 30,000 miles.

Can you visually recognize a 30,000 mile difference between a full moon in perigee and a full moon in apogee, probably not. But we all love to think that when the full moon rises over Chappaquiddick early in the evening, it is a “big” full moon.