For those of you like me, who were uncertain as to what and why the recent ‘Supermoon’ occurred, I found this nice infographic from the Forbes website.
Supermoon Infographic from Forbes website
The moon’s orbit is an ellipse (an uneven circle), and as a result, the distance between the Moon and Earth varies throughout the month and the year. On average the distance is about 382,900 kilometers (238,000 miles). The point on the Moon’s orbit closest to Earth is called the perigee and the point farthest away is the apogee. The ellipse also varies slightly from year to year, with this years perigee moon being closest to the earth since 1948.
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Thanks for that Andy, I now have an idea of what it is 🙂
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My main reason for trying to explain what it was, was because so many people seemed under the impression that the moon suddenly got massively bigger yesterday, but the day before it was normal size! Obviously, if it was that sudden, we would all be in serious trouble, well in fact, we’d all be dust by now! LOL! 🙂
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Oh dear, yes you are right, I hadn’t even thought of that LOL 🙂
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🙂
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What? The moon didn’t actually get larger? Drat! Reminds me of people thinking that daylight savings time gives us more light. 🙂 There was a hilarious photo going around Facebook that said that if you missed the super moon, you could stick a flour tortilla on your window for the same effect and it did look much like the moon.
janet
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Love it Janet!!! 🙂 🙂
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I kind of get it, wish I’d had the energy to drive out of town somewhere to see it!
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It is one of the disadvantages of living in a city, the light pollution makes astronomy observations nigh on impossible! But you’re not really missing that much Gilly, it only really appears bigger at moonrise or moonset, which of course it does that anyway 🙂
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Informative post ! Do you ever take the picture of SuperMoon or Eclipse ? 🙂 I saw the eclipse in August 1999 in France. I bet you saw it too 🙂
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I’ve not got a zoom lense on my camera Martina, so such photos aren’t really possible, I tried a moon rise photo a couple of years ago, the moon was just a spec on the horizon! Lol! 😦
And you’re right, I did see the eclipse in 1999, oddly enough probably not that far from you, I had just returned to Cornwall at the time 🙂 The most striking thing I remember about it, was how the gulls down in Newlyn harbour just went ballistic, I’ve never heard them make such a racket!! Everything else was completely silent for about 10 mins!
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We are lucky to have the memorable experience. 🙂 I would love to see the eclipse again. I will figure out when the next eclipse. Hope you will success to have the picture of eclipse. 🙂
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We had a partial eclipse here in Scotland about a year ago. Thankfully it was a clear morning, and although we didn’t get to see the moon actually passing over part of the sun personally, the light it created was really surreal, it had a greater impact on me than the full ecipse from 1999 🙂
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