What is a supermoon?

[Admin]

A supermoon happens when the full moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and closer than normal, although the difference is hard to spot with the naked eye.

What is a supermoon? : Read more

 

[rod]

There are folks who take pictures of the Full Moon near apogee and perigee, comparing the pictures side by side you can clearly see the angular size differences. Observing these small changes with unaided eyes is difficult. Some folks I know think the Moon is *ginormous* when close to the horizon. it is still about 0.5 degrees angular size in the sky On the afternoon of the 23-Jan, I was out viewing three sunspot groups AR2797, AR2798, and AR2799. As a bonus, I was able to enjoy views of the waxing crescent Moon. In the telescope view, the Moon looked *ginormous*

[Observed 1430-1530 EST/1930-2030 UT. I enjoyed views of the 3 sunspot active regions reported today at 40x and 71x views using glass white light solar filter and Celestron #12 Yellow filter. AR2797 more prominent with two easy dark core areas, plage areas. AR2798 and AR2799 was smaller. All sunspot groups today look smaller than Earth size, < 15”. A bonus was viewing the waxing gibbous Moon at 40x. The 3D spherical shape very distinct in the eyepiece FOV. The Moon clearly is a large, round body when viewing in the telescope and the albedo across the surface is different with different bright regions and levels of light reflectivity (not a uniform glow from the reflected sunlight on the Moon across its 3D shape that is spherical), nice using the #12 yellow filter too.]

 

[Helio]

There are folks who take pictures of the Full Moon near apogee and perigee, comparing the pictures side by side you can clearly see the angular size differences. Observing these small changes with unaided eyes is difficult. Some folks I know think the Moon is *ginormous* when close to the horizon. it is still about 0.5 degrees angular size in the sky On the afternoon of the 23-Jan, I was out viewing three sunspot groups AR2797, AR2798, and AR2799. As a bonus, I was able to enjoy views of the waxing crescent Moon. In the telescope view, the Moon looked *ginormous*

Yes, and no one seems to know for certain how the horizon has such an amazing effect in producing a larger-looking Moon.

They have determined that the angular size of the Moon is the same regardless of altitude, essentially. So the effect is clearly psychological, not natural.

I think it may be a combination of things, including that it is so much easier on the eye when it is on the horizon. Even the Sun, at times, can be easy to look at directly when it's sinking in the west given enough particles in the atmosphere to enhance scattering. [It is best to look at a setting sun through some clear glass to block the intense IR.]

Some say you can bend over forward and look at it through your legs in order to cancel the effect. That's just silly, and I never want to do that again. [It didn't work for me, but at least I didn't fall down.]