Author: Jérome Gréblac
SPONLI is a project about astrophotography, for amateur astronomers.
What is so super about tomorrow’s supermoon? Tomorrow, a full moon will occur that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon’s fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time from perigee – when the Moon is its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Although the precise conditions that define a supermoon vary, given one definition, tomorrow’s will be the third supermoon of the year — and the third consecutive month that a supermoon occurs. One reason supermoons are popular is because they are so easy to see — just go outside and sunset and watch an impressive full moon rise! Since perigee actually occurs today, tonight’s sunset moonrise should also be impressive. Pictured above, a supermoon from 2012 is compared to a micromoon — when a full Moon occurs near the furthest part of the Moon’s orbit — so that it appears smaller and dimmer than usual. Given many definitions, at least one supermoon occurs each year, with the next being 2015 August 30.
APOD NASA 08-Sep-14
Big, bright, and beautiful, a Full Moon near perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit around our fair planet, rose on August 10. This remarkable picture records the scene with a dreamlike quality from the east coast of the United States. The picture is actually a composite of 10 digital frames made with exposures from 1/500th second to 1 second long, preserving contrast and detail over a much wider than normal range of brightness. At a perigee distance of a mere 356,896 kilometers, August’s Full Moon was the closest, and so the largest and most super, of the three Full Moons nearest perigee in 2014 now popularly known as supermoons. But if you missed August’s super supermoon, the next not-quite-so supermoon will be September 8. Then, near the full lunar phase the Moon’s perigee will be a slightly more distant 358,387 kilometers. That’s only about 0.4 percent less super (farther and smaller) than the super supermoon.
APOD NASA 14-Aug-14
Image Credit & Copyright: José Carlos González
In this beach and skyscape from Alicante, Spain, July’s Full Moon shines in the dark blue twilight, its reflection coloring the Mediterranean waters. Near the horizon, the moonlight is reddened by its long path through the atmosphere, but this Full Moon was also near perigee, the closest point to Earth along the Moon’s elliptical orbit. That made it a Supermoon, a mighty 14% larger and 30% brighter than a Full Moon at apogee, the Moon’s farthest orbital swing. Of course, most warm summer nights are a good time to enjoy a family meal oceanside, but what fish do you catch on the night of a Supermoon? They must be Moon breams…
APOD NASA 19-Jul-14
The Sun set on Friday the 13th as a full Honey Moon rose, captured in this well-planned time-lapse sequence. Lisbon, Portugal’s Christ the King monument is in the foreground, about 6 kilometers distant from camera and telephoto lens. During the days surrounding today’s solstice (June 21, 10:51 UT) the Sun follows its highest arc through northern hemisphere skies as it travels along the ecliptic plane. At night the ecliptic plane is low, and the Full Moon’s path close to the ecliptic was also low, the rising Moon separating more slowly from the distant horizon. Northern moon watchers were likely to experience the mysterious Moon Illusion, the lunar orb appearing impossibly large while near the horizon. But the photo sequence shows the Moon’s apparent size did not not change at all. Its light was initially scattered by the long line-of-sight through the atmosphere though, and a deeper reddened color gave way to a paler gold as the Full Moon rose into the night.
NASA APOD 21-Jun-14
June’s Full Moon (full phase on June 13, 0411 UT) is traditionally known as the Strawberry Moon or Rose Moon. Of course those names might also describe the appearance of this Full Moon, rising last month over the small Swedish village of Marieby. The Moon looks large in the image because the scene was captured with a long focal length lens from a place about 8 kilometers from the foreground houses. But just by eye a Full Moon rising, even on Friday the 13th, will appear to loom impossibly large near the horizon. That effect has long been recognized as the Moon Illusion. Unlike the magnification provided by a telescope or telephoto lens, the cause of the Moon illusion is still poorly understood and not explained by atmospheric optical effects, such as scattering and refraction, that produce the Moon’s blushing color and ragged edge also seen in the photograph.
NASA APOD 13-Jun-14
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Long (Apache Point Observatory) – Courtesy: Tom Murphy (UC San Diego)
NASA APOD 17-Apr-14
NASA APOD 21-Jan-2014