What’s So Super about the Moon on Sunday?

Skygazing is Superlative Enough Without Hyperbole

The Supermoon of March 19, 2011 (on the right) compared with a regular Full Moon of December 20, 2010 that also happened to be in eclipse. This comparison image was created by Marco Langbroek, from his backyard. Found at Wikimedia Commons in a Share and Share-alike license.

No doubt you’ve all seen the hype about the upcoming so-called “Supermoon” on August 10th (Sunday night). And, if you haven’t run into the hype before, you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. I always wonder it, too. I’ve tried to see the difference between a regular moon and a Supermoon with  my own eyes. And, either I have really crappy glasses (which I kinda doubt), or I just haven’t seen the difference.  And, I doubt you would either, unless you could somehow magically arrange it so that a regular Full Moon and a Supermoon could appear in the sky at the same time.  Then, you might be able to see the difference in size in how the Moon appears from Earth during one of these events.

Since you can’t do that, you just sort of have to look at the upcoming Supermoon and say, “Hmm… yeah…” and then wonder what all the fuss is about.

So, what’s a Supermoon?  The correct term for the Full Moon we’re about to experience on Sunday is perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The term “Supermoon” is not actually an astronomy term. It’s more of an astrological thing, where soothsayers and people who think the Sun, Moon, and stars are going to tell them when to get rich, who they’re going to marry, and so on, all hang out. It’s really nothing to do with the actual astronomy of the situation.

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