Monday, May 07, 2012

Super Moon

Did you see the "Super Moon" Saturday night? At 10:34 pm (central time), the moon was about 221,802 miles from Earth—about 15,300 miles closer than average.




That closeness of the moon makes it appear about 14% bigger than normal. An optical illusion, of course, but cool nonetheless. It also makes it appear much brighter. The proximity of the Super Moon is linked to unusually high tides as well. (It probably explains my the migraine I had this week was worse than usual, too.)


Apparently, the Super Moon appeared larger than usual when was on or near the horizon rather than higher in the sky. Which would have been around 7/8pm my time. Wish they had mentioned that on the news when telling people to check it out. Not that I’m sure we could have seen it any better then than two or three hours later, what with the heavy cloud cover we had all day.


I took most of these from an open window between 10pm and 10:45pm CT.


This was the last one I took, about 10:45pm, and it does look a lot brighter than the others, even if the size doesn't appear to be any different.


Last year’s Super Moon was on March 19 and was roughly 240 miles closer than this year's. Next year's will be a bit farther away.

2 comments:

Shelley Munro said...

Your photos turned out well. Super moon must be a new term since I haven't heard it before, yet the moon is extra close every year.

Heather said...

Thanks, Shelley! I do wish I could have seen it earlier in the evening, when it supposedly did look bigger, but between overcast skies and living in an area of dense trees, it just wasn't possible. Maybe next year... ;)