People will have to wait another 50 years to view, like they did Wednesday, a big and shiny full moon which radiated against a clear night sky, according to astronomers.

Countless astronomy buffs in China enjoyed the "biggest and brightest moon ever appearing in the past 69 years" last night because the moon was at the closest point to the earth.

Beijing Daily and Wenhui Daily of Shanghai, the leading newspapers in the two metropolises, both front-paged similar photos featuring the uniquely shiny moon over luminous skyscrapers.

More than 400 stargazers climbed on a 390-meter-tall television tower, the tallest building in Beijing, to make themselves closer to the moon.

The spectacular scene was caused by the moon passing its perigee, or its closest point to the earth, at the time of the full moon, explained Zhao Fuyuan, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

And as the earth and the moon will move to the closest point to the sun two weeks later, the moon reflecting much more sunlight may become brighter. Such a coincidence would not occur until the year 2052, the astronomers predicted.

The moon orbits the earth every 28 days along an elliptical path, with its closest and farthest points from the earth at 363, 000 kilometers and 405,000 km respectively, Zhao Fuyuan was quoted by today's China Daily.

Experts with the Shanghai Observatory said that the moon last night was more than 10,000 km closer to the earth than the usual time.

The Chinese people hold a thousand-year-long tradition to view the full moon at the night of the 15th day of lunar August.