Did you see the Supermoon?

[Missourian]

I think the Moon is pretty super every night...

 

[Dajjal]

Too cloudy last night in England. Looks like its going to be too cloudy tonight too.

 

[Surfer]

 

[longknife]

Supermoon' lights up night sky @ BBC News - In pictures: 'Supermoon' lights up night sky some really beautiful pix

 

[mamooth]

Well, it's a marvelous night for a moondance / With the stars up above in your eyes / A fantabulous night to make romance / Neath the cover of October skies

Hey, as far as earworms go, there are lots worse I could have right now.

 

[Surfer]

I had that same song in my head.
That and "That's Amore."

 

[strollingbones]

i am lucky...i sleep in moonbeams

 

[Surfer]

i am lucky...i sleep in moonbeams

I would like to surf under a full moon.

 

[Surfer]

It's over. It sure was beautiful, enchanting, mesmerizing and awesome.
Until next time...

Supermoon 2013 PHOTOS: Pictures Of Year's Biggest Full Moon From Skywatchers All Over (SLIDESHOW)

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - the world's about to end...

Supermoons and rising tides – the end of the world is nigh?
Sunday 30 August 2015 - Be prepared for something extraordinary on the night of 27 to 28 September: both the brightest full Moon of the year – and the dimmest full Moon. First, we are due a supermoon. Our celestial companion travels round the Earth in an orbit that’s distinctively oval. Every month, the Moon swings from a distance of 360,000km out to 405,000km. When it’s nearest, the Moon naturally looks bigger.

Most months, we’re not really aware of the Moon’s changing diameter. But it’s different when the Moon is closest at the same time as it’s full because its proximity makes the illuminated Moon even more brilliant. Everybody’s now calling this phenomenon a Supermoon – a phrase dreamt up not by astronomers but an astrologer. On the night of 27 to 28 September, the Moon is closest to us at 2.46am, only an hour before it’s full. As a result, this supermoon will appear 14 per cent bigger in the sky than the Moon at its most distant and smallest, and it should be 30 per cent brighter. The Moon will certainly look unusually big and brilliant around 2am. But at 2.07am you’ll see a small chunk being nibbled out of its brilliant disc by the Earth’s shadow. Sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness, the Moon is totally eclipsed by 3.11am. It remains completely in the shadow of the Earth until 4.23am, when the full Moon gradually begins to emerge.

During totality, the Earth blocks sunlight from falling on the Moon so you might expect it to go completely black. In fact, some sunlight is bent around by the Earth’s atmosphere and lights up the Moon feebly. The light is reddened by passing through our atmosphere –the same reason why sunsets look red – so the Moon usually shines with a faint coppery glow even in mid-eclipse. Catch it if you can, as it’s the last total lunar eclipse we’ll see for over two years. The illumination on the Moon depends how cloudy the Earth’s atmosphere happens to be, so we can’t predict how visible the eclipsed Moon will be – but it will certainly be the darkest full Moon of the year.

The super moon rises above the remains of a medieval fortress in Belarus

And that’s not all. As the full Moon nearest to the Autumn equinox, this is the Harvest Moon, whose radiance used to help farmers bring in the ripened corn – in the days before combine harvesters fitted with brilliant lights. At the equinox, the Moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth is exactly in line with the Sun’s, and that means they pull in unison on our oceans. As a result, the ‘‘equinoctial tide’’ is the highest of the year. Having the Moon closest to the Earth this month will pile up the water even more.

Astrologers and doom-mongers are sure to latch onto this combination – along with the baleful lunar eclipse – to fill the media with dire prognostications of flood and devastation (some pundits wrongly say that tidal forces also cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). But don’t panic. According to Britain’s National Tidal and Sea Level Facility, around most of Britain’s coast the sea-level will be no more than an inch or two above the highest tides of the past 20 years.

What's Up

 

[longknife]

I only briefly saw it through my back door.

But, when I was a kid, I used to spend time in the Mojave Desert moving bee hives to get honey from the flowering desert plants.

I clearly remember laying in my sleeping back staring up at the full moon with coyotes singing to one another.

Makes you appreciate just who small we humans really are.