Well? Aren’t you slacked jawed in complete awe? Look at that HUGE moon! Damn! I have never seen our nearest worldly satellite so big!
Ha! What a bunch of crapola!
You don’t believe the supermoon hype, do ya? Sadly, there’s nothing too special about 7/11/2014’s full moon. Sure, sure—lunar perigee happens to occur when it is full—this astronomical occurrence makes the moon about 30% brighter and 15% larger, but you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference by eye alone.
If you thought this particular astronomical occurrence was rare, think again! About four supermoons occur, on average, in any given year.
I’d also like to take the time to state that “supermoon” is simply a brain fart emitted from an astrologer named Richard Nolle. Nothing more.
In fact: if you were to go outside and actually take a peek at this so-called “supermoon“—you wouldn’t be able to make out any difference between any other full moon. Boo hoo.
Feel free to read more about the mythical supermoon—here.
More lunar literature:
Sliver of Moon is Full of Craters
Photographing the Moon: A Focal Length Comparison
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Telescope: 102mm Orion Maksutov
Camera: Canon Rebel Xsi (prime Focus)
I don’t know; I’d think thirty percent brightness appreciable, although since it’d be at least a month between seeing a ‘super’ moon and a regular moon it’d be easy to not remember just how bright one was relative to the other. And atmospheric conditions are going to really mess with telling the difference by eyesight and memory alone.
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A 30% increase in brightness may seem like it would be appreciable by eye, but in reality — it’s not enough to be an obvious difference (unfortunately). In fact, if I didn’t know the last full moon was “super” before I looked at it, I wouldn’t have known it was 30% brighter. I would of thought it was a regular full moon — and I observe the moon quite a bit (full or not).
Photography is the only way to tell the difference. Next full moon — I’ll photograph it and utilize some digital wizardry to make a comparison image.
Waiting a full month between observations would certainly make the process of telling the difference a pain in the ass: assuming we could actually tell the difference by eye to begin with…which we can’t.
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But…but…..what about geophysical stress?!!!
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Oops! I forgot how stressful it could be on Earth’s crust to have a celestial neighbor with an elliptical orbit! Now I know why the ground shook when I snapped supermoon’s glamour shot.
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You know, I actually had no problem with the term ‘super moon’, until YOU ruined it for me by letting me know it was coined by an astrologer.
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You know what they say: It’s all fun and games until an astrologer has a brain fart.
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